No Way Out

by

 Jean-Paul Sartre, translated by Frank Hauser and directed by Ron Stannard

The Maskers Theatre Company presented No Way Out (Huis Clos) by Jean-Pail Sartre, translated by Frank Hauser and directed by Ron Stannard at The Maskers Studio Theatre from 19th November to 22nd November, 1997

Background Notes

Sartre’s witty and powerful play Huis Clos was first produced in Paris in 1944 and is widely regarded as his best work for the theatre. It has appeared in English under several titles, including Vicious Circle a version by Peter Brook in which Alec Guiness, Beatrix Lehmann, Betty Ann Davies and Donald Pleasance had a great success almost exactly fifty years ago.

In this production we are using Frank Hauser’s translation which admirably serves the play’s brisk theatrical dialogue and intense, tightly knit action. Three people are trapped together in a room in this variation of the eternal triangle. How will they endure it ? What is the real truth about their pasts ? There’s no escape from each other and no way out--or is there ? In a play that is both savage and sophisticated, Sartre launches his characters on a carousel of deception, sexual jealousy and guilt.

No Way Out is established as a classic of post-war French theatre and its themes of human freedom, choice and the need to face the consequences of one’s own actions and submit to the judgement of others struck a resonant chord in France in the aftermath of the German Occupation. Our production aims to show that these themes are still relevant today and that the play can be as thought provoking now as it was in Paris in 1944.

The Cast

For the Maskers