No Exit

The Orange Curtain presents No Exit, by Jean-Paul Sartre. Although many nineteenth century philosophers developed the concepts of existentialism, it was the French writer Jean-Paul Sartre who popularized it. His one act play, No Exit, first produced in Paris in May, 1944, is the clearest example and metaphor for this philosophy. There are only four characters: the VALET, GARCIN, ESTELLE, and INEZ and the entire play takes place in a drawing room, with a massive bronze ornament in the middle of the room. The piece contains essential germs of existentialist thought such as “Hell is other people.” As you watch the play, put yourself in that drawing room with two people you hate most in the world.