Theatre: No Exit

Published on 08/08/2008 20:34

NO EXIT *** THE SPACE @ JURY'S INN (VENUE 260)

THE most popularly quoted line from No Exit, "Hell is other people", could have been written for the Fringe, with its perpetual physical mle and lack of opportunities for self-reflection.

But as this BUST company production shows, Jean Paul Sartre's play actually hinges on a far more nauseating prospect for many at the festival: the inner self failing to find expression and the real world carrying on regardless.

When three damned souls are led to their room by a chipper valet (Helene Marino), they find no windows, mirrors or instruments of torture, only each other and the scene of a conventionally flaming Hell in the corner, mocking them for their navety.

Garcin (John Morgan), is a coward masquerading as a pacifist, summoned for the indignity he heaped upon his wife; Inez (an excellent Yvonne Paulley) a sadistic, self-proclaimed "damned bitch" who turned her lesbian lover against her husband; Estelle (Lisa Wu) a beautiful socialite who murdered her illegitimate child – she immediately becomes the repository for the others' unsustainable fantasies.

They come to appreciate that the true persecution of eternity will be in failing to receive the self-affirmation they crave.

Until today, 5:10pm