Hypothesis Theatre Lab’s time-looper Exit 16 sees Jamie Lin Pratt rewinding more than just time

Look, from the minute the announcement email hit my inbox, Arts Asylum knew that I would be in attendance for Exit 16. On par with my personal brand love of nachos, cats, bright shirts, and dance-punk music, I am repeatedly and publicly That Guy for any piece of media that wants to fuck around and find out with a time loop. [Of note this year alone: Mary-Louise Parker and Ayo Edebiri’s heartbreaking feature film Omni Loop; the soon-to-be-released in theaters Until Dawn; Bethesda/Arkane’s Deathloop video game.] The time loop idea rarely (if ever? outside of the Groundhog Day musical?) makes it to the live theater stage, so I was both stoked yet a bit uncertain of how this would play out in the new medium.

Exit 16 is, I’m thrilled to report, a new all-timer entry into the genre high scores list, and equally a script that is only going to improve in the very near term.

Playwright/director Jamie Lin Pratt’s story follows a 1950s diner, where a Twin Peaks-infused dedication to the in-house coffee and pie combo is pushed on strangers by a waitress with robotic hyper-enthusiasm. This is June (Sadie Shannon), who is always flanked at the counter by John (Jerry Tracy), a local farmer with poor hearing and a dedication to crosswords. Devon (Barbara Handy) and her partner Sam (Em Coffin) are passive-aggressively engaged in a hushed but continuous spat at a corner booth.

This is all of great interest to Tom (Erik J Pratt), a food writer whose latest book sees him finding local eateries at the 16th exit of as many interstate highways as he can tackle. While he’s ostensibly here for the best item on the menu, he prefers to focus on the human stories of everyday Americans around him.

Unfortunately, as Tom discovers when he flips back in his book of notes, he’s already written down the stories of everyone in this diner… many, many times. He doesn’t remember it, but they do. And when a certain condition is met, the day will start over again, ad infinitum.

There’s a very difficult balancing act inherent in the stage play version of a time loop tale. Without film’s ability to do quick cuts/edits, a group of characters that must begin each day with the same dialogue and scenarios could easily become cumbersome, as are characters with different degrees of needing to be brought up to speed or convinced of their predicament each round. Pratt makes quick work of smoothing out these wrinkles in time, and keeps a forward momentum that propels this show into an 80-minute race to the finish. It would be a victory just to see a show overcome the narrative limitations of an inescapable cycle—that it pays off as painfully and poignantly as it does is just icing on the cake.

Without giving any of the details away, at the core of this slice of Americana is indeed a reflection on America itself that is equal parts timely and timeless. The cyclical nature of being forced to share space and time with unchosen family (even when their perspectives and ethics technically align) can still be a minefield. The most antagonistic moments these characters bring to the stage are not the result of a madness they found in eternal introspection, but more frustratingly, a pure representation of who they’ve always been.

In a moment where entertainment about finding a middle ground with strangers feels like science fiction, actual science fiction is the only recent work to rise and successfully meet the moment.

Exit 16 runs at Arts Asylum through April 20, 2025 with tickets available here.