No Exit – Location, Tickets, Reviews
Three people find themselves together in a locked room in hell. All three — total strangers — know that they’re dead and they know what they did to deserve this punishment, but they are a little taken aback by hell itself. As they tensely wait to see what torture will befall them, they realize: No one is coming. Ever. As Inez, a lesbian postal-worker, tells her companions (Cradeau, a pacifist journalist, and Estelle, a spoiled socialite) “Each one of us is the torturer for the other two.”
Jean Paul Sartre, the famous existentialist philosopher, championed the notion that “hell is other people”, and No Exit is the physical demonstration of that idea. The three room occupants figure out the mechanism of hell but no matter how hard they try to avoid their fate, there is no way out.
Maxamoo
Sartre wrote No Exit in 1944, and it was a success in Europe following World War II. Seventy years later, it still resonates vividly. No Exit is a philosophical and wordy play that requires some concentration, not a lot “happens” — the three never leave the room, and they solve the riddle of their fate early on. This makes the fact that the play is so engaging and even suspenseful all the more impressive. This production compellingly conveys the sense of claustrophobia and suffocation suffered by its characters.
The three actors deliver powerful performances. Jolly Abraham, who plays the shrewd and manipulative Inez, is particularly stunning. The set and direction are meticulous and elegant, and help to prevent the production from spiraling into existential boringness — a common pitfall for staged philosophical works.
Public Opinion
As expected, not everybody pulled through the entire evening with their eyes open. We noticed several audience members dozing off at various points, yet post-show chatter indicated general approval.
From the Twittersphere:
@ooana: Ive exited “No Exit” at the Pearl theater. It was wonderfully awful. I’ve warned you. They did it very well.
@JDWillard: Wonderful production this eve of Sartre’s “No Exit” at the Pearl Theater – TY for a GREAT SHOW #PearlTheatreCo http://www.pearltheatre.org/1314/noexit/
@cjwoodin: Still thinking about the excellent performance of Sartre’s existentialist play ‘No Exit’ at @PearlTheatreCo last night! Great theatre.
Have you seen No Exit? What did you think? Comment below or tweet to us at @maxamoo.
Critics Reviews
TheaterMania
(They can’t get no) satisfaction in Jean-Paul Sartre’s uncommonly-pleasant-looking depiction of hell.
TICKETS
$35-$60 (click here for tickets)
DATES
Performances through March 30, 2014
LOCATION
The Pearl Theatre
555 West 42nd Street
New York City
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RUNNING TIME
1 hour 40 minutes, no intermission
CAST & CREW
(partial list)
Written by Jean Paul Sartre
Adapted from French by Paul Bowles
Directed by Linda Ames Key
Featuring Bradford Cover, Pete McElligott, Jolly Abraham, Sameerah Luqmaan-Harris