NO EXIT
“L’enfer, c’est les autres” or “Hell is other people”.
Poor old Jean-Paul Sartre. He has been dumped together with most other modern French philosophers into a stereotypical image. Espresso drinking, beret wearing, Gauloises in one hand and a pipe in the other. Spouting endless discourses on the futility of biology, the pointless reality of being and the complete absurdity of the random nature of the universe.
However – this stereotype is just an urban myth. Sartre processed a wicked sense of humour that is no more apparent than in his masterpiece – “No Exit”. There is a palpable seam of black comedy that traverses the entire play. Three people find themselves in a room in hell. Two things slowly dawn on them. 1). They don’t like each other. 2). And hell is forever. It is brooding, thought provoking, will certainly challenge you and make you think but just when you think it is all a bit too much you will have that delicious guilty pleasure of laughing – not too loud in case everyone else judges you. And that’s what black comedy is about. No Exit is a banquet for a discerning mind.
So why is a play written in 1944 still relevant today. Can it, or does it, still resonate? And furthermore, was the New Republic right when it wrote that “It should be seen whether you like it or not.”?
A good play is timeless and humanities perceptions of our failings and foibles aren’t fixed in one particular time and space. A critic in 1944 could be genuinely shocked over fare that we now view as both interesting and entertainment. But the play remains the same. Hell. No roaring fires, sulphur and brimstone or horns and pitchforks. Sartre’s version of hell is far more frightening – Hell is other people. Can you imagine having to spend eternity with people who are as “bad” as you! Especially when “bad” is such an elastic word.
The Maleny Playhouse
Friday 20th, Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd (Mat) March
