French Production Huis Clos to Play at Holy Cross in Centennial Celebration of Jean-Paul Sartre

WORCESTER, Mass. – To mark the centennial birthday of Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980), the French section of the department of modern languages and literatures at the College of the Holy Cross is sponsoring Huis Clos (No Exit), the play by Sartre. The performance will be Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. in the Brooks Concert Hall. The play is $3 for students and $5 for the general public.

Huis Clos was first performed in 1944 in the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier in German-occupied Paris. Huis Clos was deliberately formatted as a one act play so that theater-goers could be home before their curfew imposed by the Germans. The play is the epitome of Sartre’s existentialism, condensed in the famous line "L’enfer, c’est les autres" ("Hell is other people").

The Compagnie Inter-Europe Spectacles, a Paris-based theater group is presenting the play. The troupe comes to Holy Cross each fall for a yearly performance given in French. Their repertory is classical in nature, highlighting French classics such as Molière, Beckett, Prévert, Flaubert, Sand, Ionesco, and Duras.

Huis Clos is directed by Catherine Masson, of the French department at Wellesley College. Actors include Claude Beauclair, Françoise Mojeret and Marie Menant.

Novelist, essayist, playwright, philosopher, Sartre was a leading existentialist, best known for his novel Nausea (1983) and for philosophical volumes that include Being and Nothingness (1943).