Huis Clos

Daily Mail“A celebrated gloomfest...” Sartre enthusiasts will welcome this high-brow, neatly-staged production. Much of it feels like the immediate report of a nightmare...

Time Out“Hart rises to the challenge of this claustrophobic, talky classic...” A lack of sexual chemistry between the actors and - especially at this distance - slightly awkward erotic confrontations are the only elements in his interval-free staging that don't work effectively...

Guardian“Fine revival of Jean-Paul Sartre's infernal triangle...” What is fascinating today, however, is the play's prophetic power: this, you feel, is the crucial signpost to modern drama...

The Arts Desk“The urgency of its theatricality feels questionable...” If Hart succeeds in exploring the persistent nullity of a world in which nothing can be gained, he fails here to grasp the fragile despair, the fading hope, of one where nothing can be lost...

The Stage“As a small-scale theatrical experience it is powerful...” Hell is other people, is the most famous line as well as the abiding idea of this stifling masterpiece written in late 1943. And in this impressive revival, the timeless purity of its thoughts are captured brilliantly...

The Independent“It is exceedingly well-cast...” The main trio of performances (there's also a drolly subversive and pert valet from Thomas Padden) present with a nightmarish, sometimes balefully, comic vividness what can authentically be described as the menage a trois from hell...

Financial Times“By about two-thirds of the way through, the energy sags...” But this is still an unsettling revival of a play that, while it fits with the self-obsession of the modern age, also reflects the demand for self-scrutiny and accountability that the traumas of the second world war provoked...

this is london“This is theatre at its most claustrophobic and punishing...” Admirers of Beckett's deadpan handling of paradox will savour Sartre's writing - and will appreciate the discipline of Paul Hart's prickly production, which has a spare yet effective design...

The Telegraph“It is impossible to care about the wretched crew...” There is one consolation. This cruel and unusual punishment isn’t eternal, even if it often feels as though it is. And the relief of finally escaping Sartre’s existentialist dud about hell is simply heavenly...

Whatsonstage.com“As theatre it now seems rather hackneyed...” Fairley and Glascott make for a fine triumvirate of torturers; yet another stellar cast for the Donmar at Trafalgar season. Nevertheless, I can't in good faith recommend Huis Clos to any but the most hardened (and academically inclined)...