The Exit Interview (Published by Concord)
by William Missouri Downs
Winner of a Rolling Premiere from the National New Play Network.
PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL FRENCH
Untenured professor Dr. Dick Fig has found that a Ph.D. on Bertolt Brecht isn't worth much – He's being pink-slipped. The last thing he needs to do before he hits the slow-moving unemployment line is attending the University's required exit interview. Eunice, the interviewer, is not a good match for Dick; she finds...
Winner of a Rolling Premiere from the National New Play Network.
PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL FRENCH
Untenured professor Dr. Dick Fig has found that a Ph.D. on Bertolt Brecht isn't worth much – He's being pink-slipped. The last thing he needs to do before he hits the slow-moving unemployment line is attending the University's required exit interview. Eunice, the interviewer, is not a good match for Dick; she finds comfort in self-help books like The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, while Dick hates small talk and is a vocal freethinker.
When a despondent student begins shooting up Ronald Reagan Hall (next door to the action), Dick and Eunice are forced to take cover as they confront the great existential questions of life: What is its meaning? What is the relationship between religion and science? And why does God hate amputees? (Dick had his foot amputated in a tragic moose accident – it was reattached).
The Exit interview is not realism - A chorus of actors play nearly two dozen roles that interrupt the main action to tell the story of Dick's failed relationships, his fallout with small-minded people, and his relationship with the moose. When things get too intense, the chorus stops the play's action to stage commercial interruptions and ten-minute plays with other storylines to remind the audience that they are in a theatre and need to keep thinking.
"The Exit Interview" may be one of the most up-front, honest plays you ever sit down to watch. – The Salt Lake Tribune
"Bertolt Brecht would be proud." - Orlando Sentinel.
"A gleefully boundary-flouting riff on religion, piety and the limits of belief" - San Diego Union-Tribune
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