No Way Out (Huis Clos)
by Jean-Paul Sartre
Translated by Stuart Gilbert
Directed by Michael McManus
Beaumaris Theatre was proud to stage this Jean-Paul
Sartre one act play. Directed by Michael McManus, the play was
performed at Beaumaris Theatre on Thursday July 12th and Friday July
13th, and then at two One Act Play Festivals on Saturday July 14th and
Sunday July 15th.
The Friday 13th performance was followed by a discussion forum on
Sartre and a supper with cast and crew.
No Way Out is a journey into Jean-Paul Sartre's hell, though it is not the traditional hell with demons and hot pokers. Instead Sartre's hell is a small room with just three people - Garcin, Inez and Estelle - set to spend the rest of eternity together, each being the others’ personal torturer.
The play was originally written in just two weeks by Sartre as a short one act play so that the French public could still go out to the theatre during the Nazi occupation. It is full of Sartrean existential themes that are as important today as they were then. Essentially we see the three characters enter into hell, and gradually they begin to slowly extract the others’ reason for being in hell. We see the characters slowly reveal more of their true selves in response to the others’ presence. This play is where the famous Sartre quote "Hell is other people" comes from. We see Sartre explore this statement, leaving at the end a far more chilling idea that we are all stuck in our own hell of other people and that we all truly have "No Way Out".
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Performances:
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Thursday
12th July 2007 |