Nicholas Hull

“Exit the King” has already had two performances, but those interested can watch the play on March 7-9 at 7 p.m. in the Black Box Studio Theater.

The theater department has been promoting their newest production, “Exit the King,” with posters across the school and an announcement in the LiveROAR. The show will have five performances spanning from March 1 to March 9.

One of the actors in the play is Mira Jansen, senior. Jansen has been involved in theater since middle school and was inducted into the thespian honor society, Thespian Troupe 1915, last year.

“‘Exit the King’ is an absurdist play. It follows King Berenger on his last day on earth,” Jansen said. “He is the king of a great nation, but because he is dying, the kingdom is dying. He’s plagued with these insecurities, doubts and denial. All of his servants are in varying degrees trying to convince him that he’s dying or not [and] some of them are telling him he needs to accept it, and other ones are trying to get him to ignore it.”

Jansen’s role in this play is the king’s first wife, Queen Marguerite.

“Marguerite is a very no-nonsense kind of person,” Jansen said. “She’s very bound by duty, and she is a character who is trying to convince the king [that he] should be prepared for this and it’s his job to accept his death with dignity. She is very done with everyone else sidetracking and distracting him.”

Another actor in the play is Jack Deason, senior. Deason joined the theater program last year and performed in “Pippin” in the fall. His role is the main character in the play, King Berenger.

“King Berenger is egotistical [and] completely full of himself,” Deason said. “He is narcissistic, he thinks he is the world, and he controls everything. He invented everything in the world. He invented planes, cars, steel, [and] he invented farming. But also there is a significant part of him that he has long since abandoned since he became a king. His past is very up for interpretation [and] very vague, but there is a very significant past to him and he was not always king. It’s very complicated, but [he’s an] interesting character.”

Because the play centers around topics such as death, there is a chance that it may not be suitable for a young audience.

“I’d recommend everyone watch the play,” Jansen said. “It definitely is a play for a bit more of a mature audience, but anyone who’s interested in the whimsy and chaos that comes with talking about death and anyone hoping to see really cool costumes and sets [should watch it].”

A thing to note about “Exit the King’ is that there is a small cast. There are only six people who perform in the play: Deason, Jansen, Nobie Zur, junior, whose role is King Berenger’s second wife, Reed Jordan, junior, who plays the role of Berenger’s doctor, Hallie Jones, freshman, who plays Berenger’s maid, and Ethan Chenevert, sophomore, whose role is  Berenger’s guard.

“For most of the characters, aside from a couple, once you are on stage, you do not leave the stage,” Jansen said. “It provides the actors with a lot of time and space to practice listening and practice expressions. I liked that we’re able to find the time for the quietness and the subtlety because it is a Black Box show and with it being a small cast, it’s very personal.”

One of the outcomes of having a small cast is that they get to know each other better.

“[The cast is] very funny and it’s very lighthearted,” Deason said. “It’s all very fun. We’ve gone very quickly from strangers into a sort of family working together because the characters all do kind of work in a family, they do kind of all play off and bounce off of each other. You could be doing anything else, but you’re here because you love what you do and you love the people. I couldn’t have asked for anyone else to be in my cast.”

If those interested missed the first two shows on March 1 and March 2, they can buy tickets on wlhstheatre.org, or buy tickets at the box office before the show’s 7 p.m. start time. The remaining shows will be performed on March 7-9 in the Black Box Studio Theater.

“I’m excited for people to see the amount of work that all of us have put into our characters as actors,” Jansen said. “There’s a lot of really cool grounded moments aside [from the] chaos and people falling and people shouting and other fun stuff. There’s also these really good moments of human connection, so I’m just excited for people to see the totality of it.”