"Man should be a determiner of life rather than a victim," says the Hub Theatre Company. In Sartre's No Exit, the characters have already gone beyond the point where they can make such a choice; they are in a place where there is no rest, no dreaming, no death; they are in hell.

"You are your life, and nothing else," says Inez, triumphantly self-described as a bitch. All the characters know why they are there; they all spent their lives destroying things--Inez a marriage, Garcin his wife's trust, Estelle her baby. But Sartre is just as clear about death; you are what you make it. Inez, Garcin, and Estelle are locked in a barren room for eternity, and they have only each other to destroy. But destruction is not possible. They are already dead and so instead create a symbiosis of torture; Inez wants Estelle, and Estelle wants Garcin, Garcin only wants to be left alone. They chase each other endlessly until they realize that their desires will not meet, that there is no chance of resolution. There can be no illusions in hell; they cannot content themselves with the hope that their desires will someday be fulfilled. They must live only with themselves; they must endure.

No Exit is a masterful work. Its greatest value lies in how the philosophical and the dramatic fit together; Sartre can sell his own peculiar brand of existentialism and still have a tightly written dramatic statement. The Hub Theatre is aware of the danger of philosophic overkill; they fortunately let Sartre's philosophy stand unaided. But No Exit as drama is a strong play, demanding strong acting and strong direction. With one exception, the Hub fails to provide this strength.

The one exception is Gloria Fisher as Inez. Ms. Fisher reads her lines with a wonderful blend of absolute cruelty and sickly grace--Inez in her hands is truly frightening. The other two main actors do not even come close to Ms. Fisher. Joan E. Thompson as Estelle has the right idea at times, but for the most part she is just too nice. Estelle the baby-killer and Estelle the nice girl don't mix. David Sweeney as Garcin is the weakest of all; Garcin is a terribly tormented person, capable of the utmost barbarity toward his wife, and at the same time capable of a crippling self-doubt. Little of this is apparent in Mr. Sweeney's portrayal. Ms. Weeks' direction at times is good--the scenes with the Valet at the very beginning of the play, for example, are played with a dash of puckish cynicism, and work well. But the production throughout is marred with sloppy blocking. Meaningless turns and faltering steps abound; the scene at the end of the play when the characters finally realize the permanence of their condition fails because of weak direction.

What happens in the Hub production is that the three condemned play isolated from each other. Although the characters must meet their fates on their own, Sartre's play requires a community of desperation: Yes, they are in hell, yes, they are in hell forever, yes, they are in hell forever together. When Garcin says at the end, "Well, let's get on with it..."it should be clear to the audience that this is the only choice they have, that there is nothing else they can do. Instead, it sounds like an invitation to the cast-audience discussion afterwards.

Take him up on it. What you missed in the drama you might get in the philosophy.