Spatial Dynamics in Jean-Paul Sartre’s Huis Clos: Otherness as Spatial Oppression

Abstract

This paper will be examining a practice as research project which focuses on the staging of Jean-Paul Sartre’s modern classic Huis Clos, translated for the first time in Maltese as Bil-Bieb Mitbuq. Sartre’s play presents the narrative of three unrelated persons, captured for eternity in hell. Through my participation in the process as director, I will analyse the spatial dynamics of this performance in relation with the theme of otherness. In this particular production, the notion of the space is presented in a reverse manner. In the first half of the play, where the three characters are attempting to comprehend why they have been placed together in hell, the actors are enclosed in a 3 by 3 metres enclosure made of gauze. The spectators observe the characters through these gauze walls in the same way that a clinical psychologist might observe the behaviour of a patient from a one-way mirror. In the second half, where the characters seek an escape route, the gauze walls are suddenly lifted, and the characters use all the theatrical space, including the areas close to the audience. All of a sudden, unexpectedly, the audience becomes part of the action, and finds itself in hell as well. Hence, when Garcin shouts out his infamous line, the audience by this point has no other choice than to admit that even for them ‘hell is the other’. The objectives of this artistic project are also juxtaposed against the reactions provided by nine audience members who were interviewed after the performance, as well as against the published reviews of the production.