"Hell is other people"

As it is, the idea that "hell is other people" is fully embodied in the action: grows out of it; is not a mere legislative statement. Sartre's chilly hell is populated more than competently by Peter Bland's cast. Ray Hen-wood deserves special mention. As Garcin he seems somehow to physically assume the bilious aspect of the Sartrean anti-hero; to touch slime and to choke on a palpable metaphysical nausea. (And then a few minutes later he is all athletic wit and gesture in the Fry. Joseph Musaphia makes all that could be made of his sinister part.

Rosemary Croome-Johnson is for the most part convincingly shallow (though I wondered what exactly she was doing with her initial lines). Pat Evison as the lesbian, Ines, is a little disappointing, though her playing grows better as the play progresses. Until late in the play she seems a little perfunctory, even casual; not quite hard and unpleasant enough. Apart from several bad lapses in the translation (especially the use of some stilted inappropriate English slang forms), the production is well-planned, and the small arena nature of the production is very suitable. The actors uncomfortably breathe down the audience's collective neck. Hot and spiritually pustular, one watches.