Huis Clos

Unity Theatre

Directed by Howard Taylor

'Huis clos" is a medieval French term for the legal practive of hearing submissions in the Judge's chambers, thus its English equivalent it the Latin "in camera". Sartre's play it better known by the thematically relevant title "No Exit".

"Hell is other people", says Sartre late in this one and a half hour play. Meaning not wouldn't it be nice to be alone, but that other people hold the key to our needs and desires, thus to ourselves. A necessary evil perhaps, one we must learn to live with, learn to conquer.

The character through whom Sartre if speaking believes he is a coward: he needs someone to persuade him to contrary before he can face himself. This indeed is hell, for he, like all of us, can only really have faith in himself when he resverses the process. If there is no exit this means only that there is no other place to go for that reverse to work: we must define ourselves right here.

Each of the characters in "Huis Clos" is no more than a different shade of this philosophical colouring; the play's purpose is demonstration of the existential truth.

I mention the length because Sartre could have said all this in ten minutes. None of the characters have a reciprocal need of each other; each needs the next. The suspense resulting from disguising this progressive need, and its eventual exposure, form the dramatic structure of the play. The intellectual complexities are interesting, maybe even fascinating, but barely the stuff of good theatre.

Furthermore, the play has not aged well. Howard Taylor's production at Unity lacks the necessary imagination to transcend the weaknesses. The Inescapable room in which it is set, for example, is by now a much overused metaphor for the mind. Again, the obvious moments of explosive speech and gesture conform to a mid-century melodramatic style of theatre. Atmospheric evocation by lighting and musical effects, however pedantically obsessed with theme, are only means of avoiding the inherent problems.

A television style has been applied. There are moments of overtly tight groupings, as if everyone was being squeezed into the one frame. Actors have been asked to repeatedly project down (fatal at Unity) and often behave as if a montage of close ups is being shot. The rigidly symmetrical set Is used to excuse all these.

Heather Lindsay's performance offsets some of this. I imagine the stage work has been worthwhile for her. "Huts Clos" is a very difficult play. At Unity it provides some rewarding moments, but in general demands stronger presentation than it receives.

— Simon Wilson

Downstage Preview

Otherwise Engaged

Downstage Theatre

Directed by Antony Groser

For their next production. Downstage Theatre change the scene from the witty world of the Court of Navarre to a literate and scathingly funny satire set in contemporary London

Otherwise Engaged, by Simon Gray, looks like following its predecessor Butley and plays like Travesties and Equus in becoming a fashionable success.

After long-running seasons in London and New York (where the play scooped all major theatre awards, including Best Play of 1975 in Britain, and the New York Critics Best Play Award, last year). Otherwise Engaged has been included in the repertory of all leading English-speaking playhouses. A superbly adroit satire of manner. Otherwise Engaged is timely, challenging and very, very funny.

A young publisher, Simon Hench, alone and quiet in his comfortable London home, begins to play a new recording of 'Parsifal'. He is interrupted by a string of visitors — his schoolmaster brother, a drunken critic, a ruthless girl writer an embittered old school-fellow and his unfaithful wife — whom he endures easily enough with insouciant put-downs and a serenely brilliant detachment.

Well-known Wellington actor. Hay Henwood, plays Simon Hench, the central character; with Donna Akersten, John Caller, Alice Fraser, Lewis Rowe, Lloyd Scott and Patrick Smyth, providing the cameos as intruders on Simon's peaceful afternoon.

Otherwise Engaged is directed for Downstage by Antony Groser and designed by Rohanna Hawthorne. The production opens at the Hannah Playhouse on Wednesday, July 6.

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Actors Needed

During the Arts Festival, a group of actors are planning to present a multi-media production which will combine various facets of the fine arts. At present we are desperately short of actors. Much of the work will not necessarily require people who have had had much expirience, but we would be most interested in people who have had expirience in dance and mime.

If interested ring Andrew Dungan — 757-242