No Exit
by Jean-Paul Sartre
Directed by Ryan Case
February 21-24,28 March 1-3
Ticket Price: $15.00
Feb. 22 Pay what you can performance
March 1 Students' Night ($9 admission for students with after show discussion)
Dining Seating 5:30-7:15, Theatre Seating 7:45, Curtains at 8:00
Reservations call 859-259-2754 or visit beetnik.com.
Starring
Gene Arcle as Valet/Author
Adam Luckey as Cradeau
Robbie Morgan as Inez
Hayley Williams as Estelle
"No Exit" is a familiar play, a staple of many syllabuses for students of philosophy, literature and theatre, a darling of high school and college productions and hardly a teaser for a season theatre goers, who are likely to have seen a production or two before. Or so it would seem… Unless, of course, there is another way to look at it and discover something new, that would redefine the familiar notions... The play focuses on the interactions of three people who are confined within a room in hell. The drama essentially is regarded as an exploration of Sartre's philosophical themes: the objectifying gaze of the other, self-deception, bad faith, and issues of human freedom and responsibility. While the author provides concepts, it takes a mature co-creator to breathe life into spirited declarations and deep intellectual notions, to humanize psychologically complex but, for the most part, stylistically limited characters "stuck" in a purely hypothetical situation.
Ryan Case, the director, and his cast not only meet this challenge, but give the play yet another dimension: by giving Sartre his own place on the stage they explore the relationship between the author and the characters he creates. In many ways this relationship mirrors Sartre’s idea of our relation to God (if he were to believe in one): an ever present absentee observer whose unblinking gaze is upon us, but who leaves us to our own devices to chart our destinies through the multiple choices with no defined yard stick to measure ourselves against. We are what we do, and we see what we have done only as a reflection in the corrupted judgment of others: "hell IS other people".