The premiere of Exit the King based on Eugène Ionesco 's absurdist drama and directed by Gábor Tompa will take place on Wednesday, March 11, at 8 pm in the studio space built in the theatre's main hall. The production will next be performed on March 18, 22, 25 and April 8 and 19, beginning at 8 pm.

Noémi Vajna, dramaturg, spoke to the creators and cast members at a press conference preceding the premiere of The King Dies. In her introduction she stated: The Romanian-born, French-language playwright wrote Exit the King in 1962, a play that is both about preparing to die and coming to terms with death, magnifying the moment of dying from the point of view of the dying person and the standpoint of those who surround them, their loved ones and companions."

Gábor Tompa, the director of the production, spoke about his relationship with the theatre of the absurd: "In today's world, it is perhaps first of all worth clarifying that the so-called "theatre of the absurd" is actually a misleading term. It is not the theatre that is absurd, but the world. The term 'absurd' is rather an afterthought, a label that has been applied to the work of two extremely powerful, universal playwrights: Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco. I was introduced to Ionesco's texts relatively late, during my university years, and even then I found them extremely exciting. However, in the 1980s, Ionesco's works could not be performed in Romania: they were considered persona non grata. This is one of the reasons why the composer's family, including Ionesco's daughter, still resents the fact that he was, so to speak, shunned."

The director also pointed out that Exit the King is perhaps the only dramatic work in world literature that speaks directly and openly about the process of dying. As he said, "Marie-France Ionesco (daughter of Eugène Ionesco - ed.) also pointed out that Exit the King should not be understood as a play about historical monarchs. The king here is man, the 'king' of creation, the symbol of the common man. For all are equal before death: kings and beggars alike."

Set designer András Both stated that the gathering of visual ideas is a lifelong process: images, objects and impressions are stacked on top of each other, sometimes returning decades later in a new context within a performance. He recalled that the starting point for the set of the current Ionesco production was the visual world of The Master and Margarita, staged in 1976. The concept of that production was based on the idea of a soft, padded space, evoking a kind of "loony bin" atmosphere. For the set designer, it is particularly exciting when an earlier idea takes on a new meaning over time and is reborn in a different work, in a different context. He likened this way of thinking to Marcel Duchamp's aesthetics: the work often "already exists" and it is up to the creator to find it and present it in a new form on stage.

The composer of the performance, Csaba Boros, emphasized that the musical concept consciously breaks with the traditional sense of the sublime. The soundscape does not emphasise the celebration of human life or the sublime, but rather the faltering and fragility of human existence. The musical texture includes concrete sounds - cracking walls, gusting winds, sirens - while in the background a distant, angelic-sounding motif evokes the possibility of hope and of crossing a seemingly insurmountable chasm.

The lead role of the play is portrayed by Ervin Szűcs, with Csilla Varga, Csilla Albert, Lóránd Váta, Hannah Daradics and Ferenc Sinkó in additional roles.

The production's creative team is made up of: set designer András Both, costume designer Angéla Balogh, composer Csaba Boros, choreographer Ferenc Sinkó, lighting designer Romeo Groza and puppet maker Ilona Varga-Járó.

Tickets for the premiere of Exit the King are already sold out, while tickets for the following performances can be purchased at the theatre's box office (weekdays between 10 am and 2 pm) and online at huntheater.biletmaster.ro.