Three different people, an eternity of living with the judgment of others in one tiny room, and one “hell” of a play.
I could only be talking about one particular piece of vintage world theatre, No Exit, Jean-Paul Sartre’s 1943 existentialist rumination. Not frequently seen onstage today, Dark Horse Theatre Company has brought No Exit back for a satisfying, creative interpretation of Sartre’s work, impeccably cast and staged in the intimate Artspace Gallery in Herndon, VA.
Finely tuned acting is a hallmark of Dark Horse; founder and director Natasha Parnian continues this tradition with her small but mighty cast, Scott D. Pafumi, Jane Steffen, and Arianne’ Warner play the main occupants of one little room in Hell. As the play is written, each actor has equal opportunities to suffer, inflict suffering, or make realizations about their eternal existence, and does it with skill and subtlety.
Pafumi is Garcin, a pacifist newspaper-man from Rio de Janiero, the first to arrive, followed by Steffen, as postal clerk Inez. Rounding out the uneasy roommates, Warner as the high society Parisienne Estelle, arrives last.
This trio, immediately at odds, discovers no mirrors, three pieces of furniture and – spoiler alert – no exit from their new, hellish home. The passage of time pushes each person into revealing their darkest secrets: misogyny and cowardice, abject cruelty, and heartless vanity. Pafumi rides the waves of anguish as Garcin, displaying his self-loathing clearly. Warner wears the vainglorious and mercurial nature of the prissy Estelle like a well-tailored glove; her flirtations with both Garcin and Inez are masterful. As the cruel and harsh Inez, Steffen finds nuances in her character that belie a secret life outside the single room in which she may be in league with the sardonic Valet, played currently by Skye Lindberg. As hinted in the program notes and the post-show talk, director Parnian and her cast looked closely at the text and found ways to frame the action with an omniscient presence which works to clarify the other-worldly manipulations at play for the three damned mortals. These machinations contribute to the realization that there are no racks, hot pokers, or other literal elements of torture in this corner of Hell and the nature of their eternal suffering really is rather simple.
Jean-Paul Sartre and No Exit arrive with a heady pedigree as one of the primary proponents and examples of Existentialism. Scholars of this branch of philosophy will be in heaven. For the rest of us, I was pleased to see how clear and vivid the play is, as performed by the Dark Horse company.
No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre . Directed by Natasha Parnian . Featuring Scott D. Pafumi, Jan Steffen, Arianne Warner, and Skye Lindberg. Set design Natasha Parnian . Costume coordination by Arianne’ Warner . Co-designers lighting by Natasha Parnian and Scott D. Pafumi . Sound design by Natasha Parnian . Stage manager Peyton Johnson . Produced by Dark Horse Theatre Company . Reviewed by Jeff Walker.
Notes:
When the play moves to Grace Episcopal, The Great Plaines, Sept 6-14, Lindberg will be replaced by director Parnian as the Valet.
Scott Pafumi and I both teach theatre for Fairfax County Schools. This did not affect my review.
