Artist No Exit

Jean-Paul Sartre’s one-act play, which everybody knows mostly as the source of the sunnily optimistic quip, “Hell is other people,” isn’t quite first-date material (unless you are a really annoying first date). An adulterous coward, an adulterous high-society murderer, and, uh, a lesbian are all trapped eternally in a windowless room as punishment for their Earthly sins. A very early existentialist work, the laughs aren’t exactly flying, but if you care to don a beret and grab a macchiato afterwards there are still plenty of talking points about a piece that’s now more than 65 years old. 

Updated 01/09/2012