 |
| Casandre Elyse Medel and Silvio Wolf Busch in No Exit. Photo – Louisville Repertory Company. |
No Exit
By Jean-Paul Sartre
Directed by Darren McGee
Reviewed by Craig Nolan Highley
Entire contents are copyright © 2013, Craig Nolan Highley. All rights
reserved.
Sartre’s No Exit is an
undisputed classic, possibly the definition
of existentialist theater. With its themes of being and nothingness, of phenomenological
ontology and consciousness, it raises questions of self that have been debated
for millennia and provides no easy answers.
In the Louisville
Repertory Company’s current staging of the show at the Bard’s Town, the
questions are raised again with a flourish; it’s a solid production of a play
that dares to make you think.
It tells the tale of three souls in Hell: not Dante’s vision of fire, destruction, and
torture, but a more subtle and therefore more brutal torment. Three people are
forced to spend eternity locked in a room with each other. And as the play’s
most famous quotation states: Hell is other people.
An unassuming (though smartly dressed) valet (Bryce Woodward) brings
three damned souls, one by one, into a sitting room styled in the French
Imperial manner. First is Cradeau (Silvio Wolf Busch), an adulterous World War
II army deserter. Next comes Inez (Michelle Chalmers), a lesbian postal clerk. Lastly
we meet Estelle (Casandre Elyse Medel), a high-society woman.
As the story progresses, each of the three tell conflicting stories of
how they arrived in Hell; initially they lie to each other but eventually the
truth comes out as their predicament becomes ever more precarious. Allegiances
are formed and broken; sexual tension comes to the fore and gets beaten back
down, leading to an inevitable but ominous conclusion.
It’s not a story that will be to everyone’s taste, but if you can get
through a rather flat first sequence, it’s a show that becomes more riveting as
it goes along. First-time director Darren McGee has encouraged his strong cast
to find the humor in their hopeless situation, generating some laughs I was not
expecting but yet felt completely justified in the telling.
Busch turns in a strong turn as Cradeau. As the character’s story
unfolds and we learn more about his background, he keeps us firmly sympathizing
even as we have less and less reasons to like him. Chalmers also creates an
empathetic portrayal as Inez, probably the character with the most integrity
despite the crimes she has committed. And finally, Medel oozes sex appeal while
combining it with a fragility that makes her character, arguably the villain of
the piece, completely believable.
On the technical side, McGee has done some really nice work with his
lighting design, especially considering the limited resources available at the
Bard’s Town, and his set (designed with Stacey Catron, Sean Childress and
Michael Roberts) is realistic and nicely evokes the style of the period.
The show does suffer from a slow start, and the very talky nature of the
script causes it to drag in places. But honestly, once I got into it, I was
captivated. LRC has another solid production to be proud of, and The Bard’s
Town has another prime example of the quality of work being performed there.
Give it a look!
Starring Silvio Wolf Busch, Michelle Chalmers, Casandre Elyse Medel and
Bryce Woodward.
No Exit
March 14-23, 2013 @7:30 p.m.
The Bard’s Town
1801 Bardstown Road
Louisville, KY 40205
502-749-5275
Tickets: $15 cash or $16 credit card; $10 students and groups
No comments:
Post a Comment