BSS and UCC stage Jean-Paul Sartre’s grim, one act existentialist play. by nia silgardo, assistant editor, spectrum, BSS Student Newspaper. No Exit, written by existentialist Jean-paul Sartre, is a macabre yet fascinating play about three souls trapped in Hell. Sartre sharply dramatizes their loneliness and despair as they are lost and condemned to eternal torture in each other’s company. Between November 24 and 27 BSS and UCC staged a joint production of No Exit at UCC’s David Chiu theatre. Lasting little more than an hour and a half, it is a brief foray into the world of the damned, but may still be ten or fifteen minutes too long for its own good.
No Exit’s sparse and somewhat claustrophobic set is essentially bare. As described by the valet, (Jonah Freedman) there is a noticeable absence of any traditional instruments of torture. The lack of mirrors is the first thing Joseph Garcin (Jake Danto-Clancy) and Estelle Rigault (Rachel Stone, Grade 11) observe upon entering the room. Only Inez Serrano (Carolyn Scott, Grade 12) understands that a reflection can be more than skin deep. Without being able to see their superficial selves reflected in a mirror, the three inhabitants are forced to look inside themselves it becomes the worst form of torture imaginable.
Against the sparseness of the stage, the audience cannot help but watch intensely as the characters focus on each other with eyes of indignation, horror, and disbelief. The trio gives beautifully controlled performances, delivering succinct lines, Stone’s intense emotions as a French socialite and Scott’s portrayal of a ruthless lesbian postal worker forming the heart of the play.
The only disappointing moments occur when the characters experience visions from the “outside.” Director Rachel Metalin has the actors stare longingly into the middle distance as they explain their sightings back on Earth, at times causing them to lose their trademark character.
Overall, No Exit is ingenious, ugly and scornful. As each character flings themselves at another in the hopes of redemption, they realize that there is no escape from the acts they have committed. They are damned forever. Hence, Sartre’s underlying message: Man is alone in this world; he is responsible to his own will and decisions. No one can save him from himself.
Nia Silgardo is a Grade 12 student at The Bishop Strachan School and Assistant Editor of Spectrum, the BSS student newspaper. This article was guest edited by Frances St. George Hyslop and Kennedy pope, Grade 12, Editors-in-Chief, Spectrum.
