One of the most famous existential plays by the French intellectual Jean-Paul Sartre will take to the stage tonight.

DeeBee Productions, based in St Albans, will perform No Exit at the Maltings Arts Theatre every evening until Saturday, when there will also be a matinee showing.

No Exit introduces three finished, fully formed souls; Garcin, Inez and Estelle, who gradually drop their connections to the living world and face themselves.

There are no mirrors in this room; Garcin, Inez and Estelle are reflections of each other’s darkest secrets and because they see each other so clearly, their self-inflicted pain is constant; they become each other’s unrelenting torturers.

Director Jo Emery says: “Jean-Paul Sartre adds spice to the situation through a series of sexual power-games, with Inez making a play for Estelle and the latter teasing and tempting Garcin. All this occurs in a small, claustrophobic space with no way out.

“It’s a fascinating, yet disturbing character study and should be a rollercoaster ride for the audience with all the twists and turns.”

The world premiere of the production was in May 1944 in Paris, when the city was under Nazi occupation. French audiences could well understand the themes of resistance and implied subversion and appreciate Sartre’s existential philosophy.

No Exit has since become a classic, famed for coining the phrase ‘Hell is other people’, however, unlike it’s modern day use, the play unfolds how it is not the bother of other people in general but of those other people in particular who see us as we really are.

Following on from the success of previous productions, including Yes Prime Minister in 2015 and Educating Rita in 2014, the sardonic wit of No Exit is a new challenge for the theatre company.

The Maltings Arts Theatre, Level 2, The Maltings, St Albans, AL1 3HL, Wednesday, February 22 until Saturday, February 25. Details: 0333 666 3366