Monday, February 6, 2012
No Exit!!
I'm very excited to be starting No Exit soon. As all of you know, I am quite familiar with it. To give you guys a little background on it, No Exit is an existentialist play by the French playwright Jean-Paul Sarte. It's creepy and sprinkled with dark humor so I think many of you will find it entertaining. The premise is that three characters (two women, and one man), after dying, are brought individually to a hotel room by a mysterious valet. This is their hell where they will discover that it is quite possible for one to suffer, without the use of flames or torture-devices. Especially those who are very self-conscious...
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5 comments:
I saw the play last year. You, Collin, and Emily were all fantastic. You're right, it is really entertaining. It has actually been one of my favorite plays that I've seen over the years at St. Martin's and I make an effort to go to most of them. They play is really engaging and interesting and of course its most famous line (as pointed out in Fleming), "Hell is other people," is quite a clincher. When I believe Collin's character delivered that line I was just like GASP... sometimes so horrifyingly true.
I really like the idea that "Hell is other people" because it certainly is true. Think of how different we would all be if we were not affected by the "gaze." I think the way people precieve us really takes a toll on how we potray ourselves. In this sense Hell could definitly be other people.
Yes, I saw the play too last year. It definitely was the most interesting play I've seen and it kept my attention the entire time. I loved Dr. Ramos's acting, especially his eyeliner and ability to not blink. Sartre's version of Hell is obviously much different than Dante's, but they both are trying to point out some crucial human flaws. While Dante separates his circles by sin, Sartre allows anyone to be together in a room. It doesn't matter to Sartre, because Hell is being with other people, no matter who. People do not have the ability to really connect with one another.
At first, I thought they were sent to a mental institution or something like that, so it was interesting to continue reading and figure out that they were actually in Hell. They all believe that they are going to be tortured or something awful will happen to them, but their real punishment is suffering through each other. They are forced to live with each other and, like Aly, I like the phrase that "Hell is other people." These 3 characters certainly experience Hell through each other.
So far, I love the play. It's way different than Dante's hell and much more relatable. I mean think about it, If you were locked in a room with two people for eternity, i'm pretty sure you would feel like you were in the lowest layer of hell.
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