Fiona Glasscott in Huis Clos

Trafalgar Studios 2, ***

To send a link to this page to a friend, simply enter their email address below.

The message will include the name and email address you gave us when you signed up.

Email address

  Send link

To send a link to this page to a friend, you must be logged in.

Jean Paul Sartres, Huis Clos, is often translated as No Exit and is, as the title suggests, an exceptionally claustrophobic show.

This simmering, one-act play is set in hell, re-imagined as a crumbling drawing room, and sees three recently deceased souls turn slowly and savagely against each other.

It isnt, as you might imagine, a barrel of laughs. Each of the three inmates a journalist, a postal worker and a devilishly attractive wife has blood on their hands.

Each is cruel, secretive and hard-hearted. They clash, painfully, , hitting on hard home truths theyve spent a lifetime avoiding.

Director Paul Hart the last of the Donmars assistant directors to have his work showcased here does a brilliant job of slowly releasing the characters true colours.

Gradually, accompanied by a deadening hum and a flickering darkness, the characters hidden sins are revealed. Will Keen is particularly powerful as embittered journalist Garcin, whose glassy eyes and coiled fists hint at his violent past.

Fiona Glascotts Estelle, swooping around in a glacial blue dress, is initially a figure of fun and a seemingly harmless flirt.

But, without a mirror or a man around to reflect her beauty, she grows ugly and her flirtations turn dangerous. The actors do well to define their characters but still keep the mystery in tact.

It does grow a touch monotonous though and, as the confusion evaporates and the characters cruelty crystallises, ones eyes stray towards the exit sign.

But this is still a chilling play which reminds us that, no matter how far we might run and how many little white lies we might tell, we can never escape ourselves.