No Exit

The mission, should you choose to accept it, has always been to see every show, although this year, co-founder Carole Wears adds an extra challenge to our timetabling: in the spirit of the wildly eclectic nature of Fringe festivals, pick a performance you would normally avoid and broaden your horizons. I picked the theatre piece No Exit from Act Provocateur International as my eye-opener.

Aptly revolving around Sartre´s play that gave us the words “Hell is other people,” I was however converted by the measured performances of the trio and came to appreciate Estelle´s almost pitch-perfect channelling of the plummy tones of Penelope Keith. Three apparently blameless and recently deceased characters arrive in hell and are surprised it does not contain either a torturer or his instruments. It doesn´t take them long, however, to discover torture doesn´t have to entail red hot pokers. Alternatively ‘loving´ and hating each other (to satisfy to their own needs of course), they realise they are creating their own hell but are compelled to delve deeper into it nonetheless.

While their introspections sometimes drag, sex sells and Inez´s almost Elvis-like sneer and open-mouthed lust for Estelle results in some Sapphic shenanigans while Estelle simpers to the cowardly ego of Garcin. Good lighting and a wailing soundtrack over an almost bare set allows the audience to revel in the charged performances from the three leads. A devilish triple-pronged assault.