The Coronado Playhouse is currently presenting Exit, Pursued by a Bear, a one-act 80-minute play by American dramatist Lauren Gundersen. who is one of the most successful writers on the American theater scene, with more than 25 staged productions since the early 2010s. Yet after the first half hour, I was ready to give up on the play as raucous and pointless. But either Exit, Pursued by a Bear got better or my sensibilities started to tune into the acting and dialogue. I left the theater entertained by Gunderson’s high velocity, mostly comic script and even more by the no-holds-barred acting delivered by the exceptional four-performer cast.
The play’s action is set in a woodsy front room of a home in Georgia in 1969. Kyle, a mean drunkard, is married to Nan, who has endured his abuse for their entire marriage. Nan takes some comfort from her ebullient close friend Simon and an upbeat stripper named Sweetheart. Gunderson uses a series of flashbacks to trace the marriage to the present moment, with the brutish husband finally getting his comeuppance at the final blackout.
With all the good old boy dialects, shouting, and prancing that dominated much of the play, I struggled without much luck to figure out what Gunderson was trying to convey. A playbill quote tries to assist the audience by commenting “Exit, Pursued by a Bear, is, at its core, about recognition, education, and forgiveness. How can we see each other through the lens of empathy when so much baggage is piled up between us? And how can we turn that lens onto ourselves?”
Huh?
About halfway through the show, I decided to just let the play wash over me. It was fun watching and listening to the actors rant and cavort all over the stage. Kaitlyn Summers (Nan), Jillian Jones (Sweetheart), Eric Peterson (Kyle) and Isai Luna (Simon) kept their pedals firmly on the action and volume throughout, with special commendation to Peterson for playing Kyle with his mouth taped shut and arms bound to a chair for much of the time.
Peterson played his role more or less straight, providing effective contrasts to the physical and vocal extravagance of the three 0ther characters. I speculated from time to time that he could make a persuasive Stanley Kowalski from A Streetcar Named Desire. Gunderson garnished the high energy of much of her dialogue with a few droll comic touches, like sly incongruous references to such celebrities as Jimmy Carter, Susan Boyd, and Anderson Cooper.
But whatever the struggles I endured trying to follow the sense of the action, I have nothing but admiration for the commitment and professionalism of each performer. I can’t imagine the play being performed any other way than I saw and heard from Summers, Peterson, Jones, and Luna.
Director Kira Blaskovich maintains a sure hand on all the physical hurley burley and shouting. Frank Seed designed the authentic and practical set. Bravos also go to Jamie Krumenacker for the costumes, Steven Murdock for the sound and projection designs, Pam Everett for the props, and Kyle Waterman for the lighting.
The title of the play comes from a stage direction injected by William Shakespeare in his late comedy A Winter’s Tale and has minimal relevance to the Gunderson work. But it does serve as a flag to a rewarding, if sometimes frustrating, work by one of our most productive, and original dramatists.
photos by Ken Jacques
Exit, Pursued by a Bear
Coronado Playhouse
1835 Strand Way in Coronado (San Diego)
Thurs and Fri at 8, Sat at 2 & 8; Sun at 2
2 hours with one 15-minute intermission
ends on September 8, 2024
for tickets, call 619.435.4856 or visit Coronado Playhouse