by Brian Paul Scipione
À huis ouvert: A Conversation with Director Andrew Black
If you wander over to the Blue Theater on any of the first three weekends of July you will happen upon the Chaotic Theater Company’s newest production: Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit. An existential literary classic and a definitive forerunner of the movement of the theater of the absurd, No Exit has been captivating and frightening audiences since its debut in German-occupied Paris in May, 1944. This is no obscure and rambling philosophical work. It’s a tightly woven drama that delights and mocks the viewer at the same time.
Three strangers are trapped in a room that can be nowhere else but hell itself. To quote Gassner and Quinn, “Each of the characters needs the other two to create some illusion about himself. Since existence, for Sartre, is the ability to create one’s future, the opposite of existence is hell, where man has no power to create his future” (1969).
Director Andrew Black took some time from hectic last minute preparations to answer questions about this new production.
What can we expect?
“I don’t want to say too much. We intend to give the audience the full experience of a night in hell. It’s very entertaining but it’s not a comedy.”
The cast?
“I’ve never worked with them before. In fact, I’ve never seen or heard of any of them before the audition. ( . . .) They were exactly what I was looking for. I’ve never been so happy with a cast in my whole life. They were very open with trying new things. They were open with allowing vulnerability and emotion to come out on stage and that’s intricate to acting, whether it be, comedy, Shakespeare, a tragedy, a philosophical play or a farce. You have to bring the words to life. (. . . ) It comes from the energy of the emotion. This is a high energy play. It’s intense, intense, intense.”
Why ‘No Exit’?
“I saw it for the first time ten years ago and it’s always stuck in my head as a very intriguing concept: that at the end of our lives that this is it. This is all there is. The characters are in hell and there is no hope but there’s always something. There may be pain and suffering and struggling but there’s still something else. There is no God but there are others. God may be dead but there’s still plenty of humanity. (. . .) The reason I like this show so much is because it takes everyone’s preconception of hell and turns it on its head. It’s horrifying and a breath of fresh air at the same time.”
Why now?
“We’ve modernized it slightly but the whole point of the play is that it’s anytime. It’s not three hundred years from now. It’s not three hundred years ago. It’s anytime. It’s about humans trying to cope with themselves, trying to deal with their humanity.”
Final thoughts?
“It’s a great show to see if you’ve ever considered your death, your sins and how you are going to deal with them. At some point you have to come to grips with your life, with your soul. Everyone has to ask themselves are you going to be able to deal with your life when it’s said and done?”
No Exit plays at the Blue Theater at 916 Springdale Rd., behind the Goodwill warehouse (click for map). No Exit runs Thursdays through Sundays, July 1 to July 17. Sunday shows begin at 5 pm. All other shows are at 8 pm. For more information and tickets check out http://chaotictheatre.org/
