GCSU Theatre’s production of “Exit, Pursued by a Bear” opened with a man duct-taped to a chair and kept that same level of intensity throughout the show.

Directed by Chloe Butts, the play by Lauren Gunderson is set in the North Georgia mountains and was performed in the Black Box Theater on April 10-12. The smaller space kept the cast close together and focused attention on the lead, Nan Carter, with other characters reacting to her choices.

“Nan Carter is the protagonist who stages the play within a play and is the character the audience is expected to put themselves in the shoes of,” said Olivia Langston, a senior English major who played Nan.

The story follows Nan as she carries out a plan with the help of her friend Simon and a stripper named Sweetheart. They tape her husband, Kyle, to a chair and force him to watch reenactments of their relationship. The scenes move quickly between lighter moments and more uncomfortable ones, while the show continues to point back to the abusive relationship at its center.

Langston said playing Nan meant balancing different sides of the character at once.

“It has been a uniquely rewarding experience because we get to see the story through her eyes in the moment as well as her looking back on her path and thinking about everything that went wrong in her efforts to make it right,” Langston said.

Throughout the play, Kyle remains physically still while the action unfolds around him. The scenes build toward a final moment involving meat and honey, part of Nan’s plan to make Kyle believe he will be left for the bears. The ending is followed by a bear’s roar, leaving it unclear whether he is actually harmed.

The title references William Shakespeare and comes from a well-known stage direction in his play, “The Winter’s Tale.”

Behind the scenes, technical elements helped support the production. Madison Hildebrand, a sophomore theater major who worked as props lead and costume supervisor, said her role included preparing actors for unusual situations.

“I consider my job to be making the actors as comfortable as humanly possible with random stuff and things that don’t happen often, like being duct taped to a chair,” Hildebrand said.

She also noted that the production included a wide variety of props.

“For this show, there are a ton of props,” Hildebrand said. “There’s a lot of weird stuff that we had to make, like a dead deer.” 

Hair and makeup design added more detail to each character. Sophia Wilson, a senior theater major, said her work focused on matching each role.

“When it came to designing the looks for all of these characters, for example, Caleb’s character, we had to make sure we matched what the style was like for a gay person at the time,” Wilson said.

She also worked with Butts on Kyle’s appearance.

“I personally added tattoos,” Wilson said. “With the help of the director, we came up with the idea for Kyle, who is the male lead of the show, to have tattoos. It’s been really fun getting to come up with the designs, since I hand-stenciled them all.”

Wilson said the entire process reflected how the cast and crew worked together throughout the production.

“I think all of us are just so dedicated to this craft,” Wilson said. “We spend hours and hours here, but we all help each other out and we’re all very supportive of each other.”

Langston said she hopes her character leaves a lasting impression on audience members, especially through its portrayal of abusive relationships and the challenges involved in confronting and leaving them.

“Chloe and I talked a lot about how there’s going to be at least one woman in the audience who sees herself in Nan,” Langston said. “My goal is for that woman in the audience to see herself as Nan in the beginning, and want to become Nan in the end.”

By the end of its run at GCSU, “Exit, Pursued by a Bear” remained focused on its subject matter. It balanced moments of levity with chaos to portray abuse without minimizing its impact, leaving the audience with both discom

fort and release.