Just saw Anthony Marinelli's virtual production of Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit. A scorchingly brilliant two hours.
First, seeing this play on a screen was in many ways better than in person. The close-ups of the faces lent an additional dimension to the performances. Jeff Musillo's facial expressions in the relatively minor role of The Valet at the beginning of the play, for example, were just perfect, at once powerful and subtle, and would have been not quite as effective when seen from a seat in a physical theater, unless that seat was in a very close front row. (The virtual rather than physical presentation also made this seem like a full-fledged play, not a "reading," which it is technically billed as being.)
The three performances of the major characters were stellar. I saw Amanda Greer as a kick-ass Marilyn Monroe a few years ago in a play Marinelli not only directed but wrote, Max & Domino. She plays the caustic, vulnerable, gay postal worker Inèz in No Exit, and her delivery will leave singe marks on your fingers. Heat of course is a major component of this story, because all three people are not only dead but in some kind of hell. I suppose this also makes them vulnerable, though being dead could also make them invulnerable, and you never quite know with Sartre.
Thomas Gipson plays Garcin, a pacifist journalist who is shot down by a firing squad for his troubles. The two other characters call him "garçon" -- French for waiter -- I have no idea if that's the way you pronounce Garcin, or Marinelli instructed the other two to call Garcin that as a indication of their contempt for him, but either way, it worked. And Gipson worked very effectively, too, sincere, logical, and highly aggrieved.
Inèz certainly has contempt for Garcin. Denise Reed's Estelle mostly wants to seduce him, and though that's not quite an indication of contempt, it's certainly treating Garcin as an object. Inèz true to form is infuriated by all that, and Reed does a fine job shuttling between vamping and anger, with the undertone of desperate vulnerability that everyone accept The Valet understandably has, though he has a touch of it too when Garcin says something about his looks.
In case you didn't already know, the essence of this play is "hell is other people". Marinelli does an especially strong job of conveying this, given that this production is not only virtual but the actors are each in separate rooms in their separate real dwellings. Marinelli intersperses with appropriate filmic footage, which brings to our eyes the backstories that the characters tell us and one another.
A memorable rendition of an eternally classic play, and never more relevant in its story conveyed via literally separate rooms in these our Covid times.
If you'd like to see this in an in-person theatre, here's where you can make a tax-deductible donation.
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