Electric Company Theatre

A mysterious valet ushers three people into a shabby hotel room. As the door locks behind them, an eternity of damnation lies ahead. What they soon discover is that hell isn’t fire and brimstone at all – it’s other people. Jean Paul Sartre’s 1944 existential classic, adapted from the French by Paul Bowles, is skillfully re-imagined as a series of hidden cameras turn the stage into a cinema, and the audience into voyeurs as a meticulously staged live film takes place before your eyes. The result is a highly entertaining, live-mixed thriller that amplifies the psychology of three slightly-offstage performances by leveraging the techniques of cinema to deliver a high-impact stage experience.

Electric Company’s reinvention of No Exit, produced with The Virtual Stage, opened in Vancouver in 2008 to intense praise and a sold-out run. Canadian critics hailed the project as “a new standard of brilliance” for productions of Sartre’s dramatic masterpiece. No Exit was honoured with several awards at Vancouver's annual Jessies, including Outstanding Production and the Critic's Choice Innovation Award.

Starring Laara Sadiq, Lucia Frangione, Andy Thompson, and Jonathon Young. Set by Jay Gower Taylor. Lighting by John Webber. Costumes by Kirsten McGhie. Sound by Brian Linds. Video by Andy Thompson.

"Theatrical perfection . . . spectacularly brilliant . . . one of the finest theatrical achievements in recent memory"

-Calgary Herald

"A vibrant, very modern theatrical experience . . . the acting is uniformly powerful and committed, the stagecraft extremely skillful and focused."

-the Toronto Star

“Brilliant...the bravest theatrical ride I’ve been on this year.”

- the Globe and Mail

“Filled with innovation ... A jaw-dropping reminder that Vancouver’s site specific theatre scene remains a world leader.”
- the Vancouver Sun

“Director Kim Collier is a visionary ... A riveting theatrical event.”
- the Georgia Straight