Burning in a lake of fire is certainly one way to spend one’s eternal damnation.
But Jean-Paul Sartre had a more insidious suggestion.
The three recently deceased characters in Sartre’s play “No Exit” discover at the outset that the afterlife for people of their questionable character consists of nothing more threatening than a French drawing room with inconsistent valet service.
No sweat.
But what if you had to spend infinity in a room with people seemingly chosen to drive you optimally batty?
The characters in the play await their torturers, little suspecting that they are meant to torture one another.
Sartre didn’t draw his notions of hell from the Judeo-Christian tradition. He was one of the most well-known atheists of the 20th century. Sartre was a proponent of existentialism, which stresses – among other things – full personal responsibility for the consequences of one’s acts.
Thom Hofrichter, First Presbyterian Theater minister of drama, said he believes the play has a lot to say to modern Christians. Hofrichter says Sartre alleged that “existence precedes essence,” meaning that humans have no essence when they are born. They exist first and then establish their essence through the choices they make.
We live in a time, Hofrichter says, when words seem to speak louder and more persuasively than actions.
“In this society, people give themselves labels and then their actions contradict the label. People call themselves ‘compassionate conservatives’ when their actions are anything but compassionate.”
The characters in “No Exit” have no place to hide when the toxic chemistry of the three forces self-reflection.
Joel Scribner, First Presbyterian Theater production manager, who is actually directing Hofrichter-as-actor this time around, says there are too many instances of situational morality in today’s society.
“Murder is bad, but it is OK if it serves the oil industry,” he says.
Hofrichter says one of the ways modern Christianity fails its adherents is by making it too easy to absolve oneself of responsibility for one’s actions.
“There is a misuse of the saving power of grace,” he says. “It reminds me of an Emo Philips joke:
Hofrichter says words – no matter how powerful, seductive and oft-repeated – should not free a person from fearless self-assessment or transform harmful acts into just ones.
“You shouldn’t be able to call yourself the Environmental Protection Agency and rape the land,” he says.
“We are getting more and more sophisticated about how we lie to each other in this culture. ‘No Exit’ says you are ultimately judged by your actions. What you do is who you are.”
All this philosophizing doesn’t preclude the play from being thoroughly entertaining. Hofrichter says it’s funny, fast and even lusty at times. But it also makes you think, which is not as incongruous as it might seem to some present-day patrons.
Review by Steve Penhallow, fireman lifted from John Paul Sartre.org
But Jean-Paul Sartre had a more insidious suggestion.
The three recently deceased characters in Sartre’s play “No Exit” discover at the outset that the afterlife for people of their questionable character consists of nothing more threatening than a French drawing room with inconsistent valet service.
No sweat.
But what if you had to spend infinity in a room with people seemingly chosen to drive you optimally batty?
The characters in the play await their torturers, little suspecting that they are meant to torture one another.
Sartre didn’t draw his notions of hell from the Judeo-Christian tradition. He was one of the most well-known atheists of the 20th century. Sartre was a proponent of existentialism, which stresses – among other things – full personal responsibility for the consequences of one’s acts.
Thom Hofrichter, First Presbyterian Theater minister of drama, said he believes the play has a lot to say to modern Christians. Hofrichter says Sartre alleged that “existence precedes essence,” meaning that humans have no essence when they are born. They exist first and then establish their essence through the choices they make.
We live in a time, Hofrichter says, when words seem to speak louder and more persuasively than actions.
“In this society, people give themselves labels and then their actions contradict the label. People call themselves ‘compassionate conservatives’ when their actions are anything but compassionate.”
The characters in “No Exit” have no place to hide when the toxic chemistry of the three forces self-reflection.
Joel Scribner, First Presbyterian Theater production manager, who is actually directing Hofrichter-as-actor this time around, says there are too many instances of situational morality in today’s society.
“Murder is bad, but it is OK if it serves the oil industry,” he says.
Hofrichter says one of the ways modern Christianity fails its adherents is by making it too easy to absolve oneself of responsibility for one’s actions.
“There is a misuse of the saving power of grace,” he says. “It reminds me of an Emo Philips joke:
‘When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bike. Then I realized that the Lord doesn’t work that way, so I stole one and asked him to forgive me.’ ”
Hofrichter says words – no matter how powerful, seductive and oft-repeated – should not free a person from fearless self-assessment or transform harmful acts into just ones.
“You shouldn’t be able to call yourself the Environmental Protection Agency and rape the land,” he says.
“We are getting more and more sophisticated about how we lie to each other in this culture. ‘No Exit’ says you are ultimately judged by your actions. What you do is who you are.”
All this philosophizing doesn’t preclude the play from being thoroughly entertaining. Hofrichter says it’s funny, fast and even lusty at times. But it also makes you think, which is not as incongruous as it might seem to some present-day patrons.
Review by Steve Penhallow, fireman lifted from John Paul Sartre.org
No comments:
Post a Comment