Perched on a hilltop along a dirt road in Marshfield and surrounded by lush gardens and roaming cattle, Unadilla Theatre holds a special, if rather hard to find, place in Vermont’s summer theater landscape. For 45 years, audiences have sought it out as much for its rustic charm and idyllic settin g as for its diverse programming. Unadilla’s offerings run the gamut from classics by the likes of William Shakespeare and Gilbert and Sullivan to more modern and pointedly political works. One example of the latter opens this month: Exit the King, by Romanian French avant-garde playwright Eugène Ionesco, running from Friday, July 24, to Sunday, August 2, at Unadilla’s Festival Theatre. Though it premiered in 1962, the absurdist dramedy’s themes of power, mortality and legacy especially resonate today, according to director Jim Phinney. The third work in Ionesco’s four-play “Berenger Cycle,” Exit the King centers on 400-year-old King Berenger the First, whose health — and kingdom — is failing after centuries of rule. Ionesco based the script on his own near-death experience and fear of death, Phinney said. He projects this (with many absurd twists) onto the King, who is forced to accept the reality that his reign is not permanent and confront what it will mean for the world to move on without him. Zephyr Teachout, who succeeded centenarian founder Bill Blachly as Unadilla’s artistic director last year, said she and Phinney deliberately chose to produce Exit the King this summer in light of current American politics. It’s all in the name: The United States is celebrating “the 250th anniversary of the rejection of kings,” Teachout said, and many Americans continue to reject the notion of autocracy through nationwide “No Kings” protests against the Trump administration. She added that King Berenger’s emotional journey speaks to the nation’s “geriatric politics” and concern over America’s aging leaders. As a professor of law at Fordham University in New York City and former candidate for governor and attorney general of New York, Teachout specializes in the study of corruption. She noted that a key source of corruption is the inability of authorities to acknowledge that public interest isn’t always the same as their self-interest. “We have so many people who are clinging, grasping on to their own power,” Teachout said. “People are choosing to hold on to that power until they die because they cannot imagine the world without their own unique wisdom in it.” Phinney said he hopes audiences recognize that same struggle in King Berenger and draw connections to the challenges of the present day. The most important reason to create theater, he said, is because you “believe that it has relevance to either the microcosm of your community or to the macro-level, timeless issues of the day.” Even after more than 60 years, Exit the King maintains its relevance, Teachout said, in part because of how Ionesco balanced the play’s heavier themes with his flair for farcical comedy.  “One of the best, most powerful historical tools against tyranny is humor,” she said, “so we do well to remember that.” Another tool is community, which Unadilla has cultivated for nearly half a century through a unique theatergoing experience. The Festival Theatre has a “rough-hewn, almost unfinished” vibe, Phinney said, with electrical wires visible from the house and an earthy smell. He and Teachout both nodded to the irony of producing a show as a commentary on national politics in a secluded, small-town theater. But no place is isolated from these issues, and Exit the King aims to get people thinking about them. “I feel like you never regret going to the theater, like something happens in the dark,” Teachout said. “The experience of absurdism about a corrupt monarch in a barn should not be missed.” ➆ Exit the King by Eugène Ionesco, directed by Jim Phinney, produced by Unadilla Theatre. July 24 through August 2: Fridays and Saturdays, 7:30 p.m., and Sundays, 2 p.m., at Unadilla Festival Theatre in Marshfield. $15-30. The post With ‘Exit the King,’ Unadilla Theatre Reflects on America appeared first on Seven Days. ...read more read less