Review: NO EXIT at Live Garra Theatre

I love Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit. It's a deeply delicious, fascinating play that reimagines Hell not as a landscape of fire and brimstone, but as what we do to each other - the famous line, of course, is "Hell is other people." No Exit is a key influence of a number of popular works today, including elements of The Good Place.

All this is to say that No Exit itself is a wonderful source material, and it was intriguing to hear Live Garra Theatre's plans to update and add an escape room element to the famous play. I walked into this show excited to see a new, modern twist on one of my favourite plays. Instead, I walked out incredibly disappointed.

It's hard to figure out where to begin with what went wrong with this particular production, but I think a serious issue comes from a lack of familiarity with the text. While modernizing a show can be difficult, the truth is that No Exit is a timeless play that requires small changes at the costume and production level to reassign its era - update the costumes and props, and one should be set. And yet, the costumes chosen weren't really of any time - ours, Sartre's, or any other - and didn't fit the actors particularly well. Furthermore, in the case of Garcin, they were inexplicably varied from the text in a way that made no sense; Estelle's protests against Garcin's shirtsleeves were strikingly contradicted when the actor removed his jacket to reveal a t-shirt. Likewise, some of the props chosen seemed haphazard decisions at best and outright careless of the text at worst - for example, Estelle presents Garcin with a folded American flag, despite his frequent references to his life in Brazil. Even staging seemed at odds with the source material - following Estelle's opening argument about which is the perfect settee for her outfit, the actress proceeded to spend the rest of the show on a couch other than the one she'd so carefully selected.

The lack of attention to details in the play itself carried over to other elements as well. The lighting was erratic, rarely consistent in how it highlighted moments, and often leaving characters in shadow during pivotal scenes - whenever action took place by the rearmost couch, it was inevitably poorly lit. It was distracting, and also made it difficult to pick up on the correct emotional elements for each scene. The fireplace was set in front of the stage so the cast could look at the audience when peering into it to see those left behind on earth, yet this seemed forgotten later in the show when multiple cast members crossed behind it.

In addition to this carelessness, there was a sense that the production team simply wasn't entirely sure how to utilize the space. Given that the Silver Spring Black Box Theatre is, by nature of being a black box, versatile, it felt that very little thought went into the set: four storage settees were scattered at odd, non-symmetric angles that made it difficult for the actors to circle each other, and the entirety of the stage available was opened, rather than opting to make the space more confined, intimate, and suspenseful. The cavernous stage made it harder to feel the maddening confinement of the characters' punishment, and made it harder for the audience to emotionally connect or feel any real stakes.

This could all have been, if not countered, at least mitigated by a solid, sharp cast. Unfortunately, though this cast seemed to be trying their hardest, their skill and energy didn't meet the demands of the show. Cast members overacted, over-enunciated, sped through recitations, fumbled lines, or delivered them with little to no emotion. There was no real tension in any of their interactions, and the role of the Valet seemed to be entirely forgotten. It was difficult to feel anything as an audience member since even the cast seemed disconnected from their characters, and even their confessions of their wrongdoings fell flat.

On top of all of this, there was the "Great Escape" element. A slip of paper was placed in each program with a series of questions that were a mix between trivia and riddles. No instructions were given beyond the note dashed onto the back of the program, claiming these were clues to the puzzle to grant the characters redemption. A box was placed in the hallway outside the theater for people could drop in answers, though it was never clear what, if any, purpose this played. An inspection of the Live Garra website reveals that the escape room element is only available Sunday evening, not connected to any of the actual performances.

It's difficult to put together a show that's well-known and well-beloved. But Live Garra's production of No Exit didn't only fail to live up to the play's reputation - it failed to live up to its own.

Live Garra Theatre's No Exit is playing at the Silver Spring Black Box Theatre on weekends through November 24. Performance run time is approximately two hours with one fifteen-minute intermission. Information on tickets can be found on the Live Garra Theatre website.

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