Exit The King/ set design
(modeling)
· Date: 2009
· Genre: Drama
· Written by: Eugene Ionesco
· Plot: The king is informed early in the play that he is dying, and the kingdom is likewise crumbling around him
· Description of the set: A rectangular wooden structure that folds during the play towards the public, a circular structural throne for the king that turns during the hole performance as a clock, chairs where the public sits with backrests in the form of a grave, a folding staircase and a panel with a multiplication table drawing on the background.
The set is thought to play with the process of the death of the king. During the performance the wooden structure collapses towards the public, which means towards death. In this metaphor the structure represents a tree, from which real fruit hangs, eaten by the actors till it is over. This tree has loosed his leaves, and the actors sweep them up until the floor gets empty. With an empty floor and a folded structure, the king is left alone, isolated in his throne. He realizes that is time to die. He moves towards the public and climbs up the stair, enters in a hole at the end of it, and the stair gets closed as a pop-up book
photo: Felipe González Cabezas