by Jean-Paul Sartre

Translation, adaptation, artistic direction and soundtrack: Alina Hiristea
Scenography: Vioara Bara
Set design assistant: Oana Cernea
Premiere date: May 15, 2000

Written at the end of the war, the play "Closed Doors" encompasses a series of theses that Sartre would later take up in fundamental works that reveal a writer who constantly rises up against traditional ways of thinking. The same is true of the play "Closed Doors", in which a narrow, closed space is imagined, from which there is no way out and relationships between people are extremely degraded. That space is Hell itself, organized as a true system of oppression, in which there is no need for executioners, torture devices or eternal fires; here, each soul is the executioner of other souls, through presence, through accusations and examinations of conscience: "The executioner is each of us for the other two") The characters who populate Hell are the reporter Garcin, the clerk Ines and the aristocrat Estelle, three natures that are sufficiently different to be unable to coexist in harmony. They will be forced to admit their own sins – adultery, infanticide, deceit, cowardice, malice, odious manipulation), illicit desires and unpleasant memories and to discover those of others, being forced to accept that one does not end up in Hell by chance: „We are among ourselves, among criminals.” When the door of the elegant living room-cell opens, none of them dares to leave, because they have convinced themselves that they have nowhere else to go, the condemnation meaning to stay together forever, continuing to harass each other, to suspect each other, to lie to each other, to contradict their tastes and beliefs.

So, contrary to popular belief, we don't need to go down to find ourselves in Hell. The full cruelty of Hell can be found in the most comfortable living rooms and in the company of the most presentable people, according to Sartre's conclusion that has become an aphorism: "Hell is others.".

Distribution:

Ines:  Mariana Neagu
Garcin:  Doru Firte
Estelle:  Mariana Presecan
The boy on duty:  Andrian Locovei

Technical director: Ofelia Fîrte
Prompter: Florence Szabo
Lights: Iosif Balogh, Sorin Precup, László Attila Oláh
Sound: Sorin Domide