The concept of the ‘other’ (or ‘Other’) is one of the great concerns of the history of philosophy, not least within its existential branch, of which Jean-Paul Sartre is one of its pillars.  

Sartre’s one-act play Huis clos (No Exit, sometimes translated to In Camera or Dead End) was first performed in 1944 and is the birthplace of the often-misused line “hell is other people” (l’enfer, c’est les autres).

It concerns the intersubjective hellscape caused by the gaze of other people, forcing us to see ourselves as objects in the inescapable snare of others’ perpetual scrutiny. 

A Maltese translation of this existential play, produced by Kevin Saliba and directed by Tyrone Grima, will make its way to the Spazju Kreattiv stage from January 27-29.

Producer/translator Kevin Saliba (front, right), director Tyrone Grima (front, left), with choreographers Yuko Kominami (back, right), Jill Crovisier (back, centre) and Dorian Mallia. Photo: Steven Levi Vella

The play concerns three recently deceased people who are ushered into a room in hell – Garcin, a revolutionary afflicted by cowardice; Estelle, who murdered her illegitimate child; and Inèz, a predatory lesbian.

Each of them affirms and shapes the other’s sense of self – the other’s recognition determines who they are. The fact that they cannot escape each other constitutes their eternal torture.

Saliba was exposed to Sartre’s works in his mid-teens and says these left a huge impression on him back then.

“Unable to make much sense of his philosophical works, I stuck to his literary output instead, particularly Nausea and No Exit,” recounts Saliba.

“Incidentally, the former conveyed, especially certain salient passages, exactly the way I sometimes felt about most things – that all-pervasive sense of meaninglessness threatening to engulf the entire world.

“Suddenly most of my assurances started, slowly but surely, to crumble. My sense of self was shattered.”

Sartre’s No Exit had struck Saliba as equally revelatory, saying he saw the play being staged everywhere and couldn’t help believing that most human relationships are bound to be intrinsically dysfunctional.

“I felt sad noticing that many people place too much importance on what others happen to think of them. Perhaps I was surrounded by the wrong sorts of people, but to this very day I believe that Sartre was really onto something,” he said.

No need for red-hot pokers… hell is other people!

Grima, who directed the play, says the work’s philosophical underpinnings formed the starting point of his interpretation of it.

“My starting point was the philosophical traits that characterise Sartrean thought,” he described. “Following that began a laborious process of embodying these reflections, and how to do so within the context of the play.”

Grima says they had decided early on to use choreographies to depict the dynamics of the three main characters and to unpeel aspects from their past in the world.

“These choreographies would highlight the notion of alterity that is so important in this play,” he said.

To emphasise this more strongly, he said they specifically decided the choreographies would not be done by the actors themselves but by three separate dancers, two of whom were flown to Malta on purpose for this task.

Captured by Ken Scicluna and accompanied by music by Nigel Baldacchino, Grima says the dance sequences by Yumo Kominami (Japan), Jill Crovisier (Luxembourg) and Dorian Mallia are sure to give this production a special edge.

Sartre's play confronts us with the intersubjective hellscape caused by the gaze of other people. Photo: Steven Levi Vella

The cast, consisting of André Mangion, Antonella Axisa, Sarah Camilleri and Sean Briffa, also found ways to physicalise the text, he said.

Reflecting on the play’s notorious punch line, Grima says the infamous line was always on his mind.

The space, with a set designed by Adrian Mamo, will cause audience to find themselves “shifting from mere observers to guilty culprits as they become part of hell,” says the director, saying he looks forward to the reaction of the audience.

Saliba emphasised that Sartre’s works embody universal existential concerns which resonate with all audiences, irrespective of nationality, race, gender or credos.

“As regards today’s existential concerns, the late Oliver Friggieri once told me that these – our private hells, if you will – do not differ much from those of Stone Age people,” says Saliba.

“In a way I agree, but we people of the 21st century have one extra hellish circle to contend with: social media.

“Towards the end of the play, Garcin proclaims: ‘no need for red-hot pokers… hell is other people!’ I’d say ‘no need to come to watch this hell at Spazju Kreattiv. You can watch it every day on Facebook!’,” he quips.  

“To my mind, social media is the most vicious place on earth – one big ubiquitous hell in cyberspace. We’re all trapped together in it and, just like Garcin says, ‘unfortunately, the door is locked’.”

Reflecting on Sartre’s own consideration of the nexus of his play, Saliba points to the philosopher’s own words from the mid-sixties in which he says, “there are a large number of people who are in hell because they depend too much on the judgment of others.

“These people are like dead, in the sense that they cannot break the cage of problems, worries and habits they have.

“The three characters are not like us, because we are all alive while they are dead. Whatever circle of hell we are living in, I believe we are free to break it. And as often as people don’t break it, they stay there because they want to, freely. For that they put, freely, themselves in hell”.

Bil-bieb mitbuq (a translation by Kevin Saliba of the play No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre and directed by Tyrone Grima), is showing at Spazju Kreattiv between January 27-29. Tickets from kreativita.org/en/event/bil-bieb-mitbuq. This project is supported by the Maltese Council for the Arts – Malta Arts Fund and by the Maltese College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST).