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No Exit

Reviewed by Lovell Estell III
The Complex (Oh My Ribs Theatre)
Through Nov. 1

“Hell is other people”. The oft repeated phrase is one character’s dark realization from Jean Paul Sartre’s woebegone, existential tale of the damned receives a spectacularly ordinary mounting from InterAct Theatre company and director Kent Minault. Hell as conceived here by Sartre has no horned impresario, smoldering flames or despairing wails, but is instead a well-lit room (Kurtis Bedford’s fine, down-toned set piece), furnished with comfortable sofas, where a nattily dressed valet (Alan Naggar) is the maître d. One by one, he escorts into the room the recently deceased Garcin (Matt Fowler), Inez (Erica Edd) and Estelle (Kristen Egermeier), each of whom has their own tale of woe and how they arrived here.

Garcin was a womanizer, journalist and wife-abuser who was shot; Inez, a vicious lesbian who committed suicide, while Estelle was a shallow, self-absorbed socialite and adulteress felled by illness.

Forced to endure the agony of each other’s presence, the trio banter constantly about their former lives and transgressions, while attempting to accustom themselves to the new “digs,” their punishment intensified by an uncanny ability to see the goings on in the world they once inhabited.

This is a play where nothing really happens, and a grinding stasis is the biggest problem that arises. Unfortunately director Minault doesn’t find a way to mitigate it. This 90-minute one-act feels more like three hours, notwithstanding the perfectly respectable performances.

Interact Theatre Company at Oh My Ribs Theatre, 6468 Santa Monica Blvd, Hlwyd; Thur.-Sat., 11 a.m. & 8 p.m.; Sun., 4 p.m.; through Nov. 1. (818) 765-8732, www.interactla.org