God, guns and cheerleaders

Where would God want me to start this review of The Exit Interview? How about beginning with the cheerleaders (Lizzy Poore, Kaley Saari and Jordan Mata) who introduce and frequently interrupt Big Idea Theatre’s production of William Missouri Downs’ academic satire? Or Earl Victorine’s fabulous Fox News reporter whose every interview (whether of a mother whose baby survived being run over, or of the survivor of a mass killing spree) asks, “What do you think God’s plan is for you—in eight seconds or less?”

Directed by Gail Dartez, on an eye-catching set by Brian Watson and under lighting by Alexa Slater and Benjamin T. Ismail, the play is a mostly hilarious, though sometimes a little tedious, riff around knowledge and mythology, science and theology. Or maybe it’s about faith and atheism, or about the commercialization of art, or the horrors of gun violence. Or the oboe’s threat to a relationship. Or maybe it’s about the humiliation of losing one’s job. I vote yes.

Professor Dick (“I prefer Richard”) Fig, played by the excellent Jouni Kirjola, has just lost his university teaching job (he’s an expert on German playwright Bertolt Brecht). He is being subjected to an annoying exit interview by an uber-religious human resources officer named Eunice (the superfine Tara Henry), who counsels: “When God closes a door, somewhere he opens a skylight.”

As they’re working down the list of inane and often loaded questions, there’s a report of a masked gunman (Garrett Bank, very good in his small part) on campus. Shots are heard. Eunice dives under her desk and continues the interview from there.

Brecht reinforced the idea of theater as non-reality by interruption, keeping audiences from becoming emotionally involved in the play and its characters. Downs achieves his “alienation effect” by having the characters suddenly break into song or dance or even into a different play. The strong ensemble, which also includes Shelley Russell Riley, Cameron Rose and Rebecca Scott, fills many roles.

The Exit Interview is fascinating theater, absurd and absurdly funny. If you’re looking for logic and realism, this is not the play for you. But for a comedy about existential angst, oboes and school shootings, you can’t ask for much more than this.