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Audiences shouldn‘t shy away from No Exif‘s existentialist theme Oum them. Count the bilâ€" lions of men, women, boys and girls. Count the hopeless poverty and sin of their lives. No exit. Born, bred, burned out and then buried. No exit in life, no exit in death. That is the story of this age. In natural thinking, this is the conclusion. No Exit. Erwin is talking about No Exit, the oneâ€"act play written by French existentialist Jean Paul Sartre, who attempts to portray the blankness of life in terms of hell. Sartre does not define hell as a lake of brimstone, a perpetual fire, or a place where the Devil and his torturers forever taunt their victims. To Sartre, hell is other people. To Robin Bennett, Sartre‘s Hell is a theatrical challenge. â€" Bennett, who is currently directing No Exit for Kitchenerâ€" Waterloo Little Theatre, has wanted to do this project for a long time but could never find the right window of directing opportunity. Bennett had read a lot of existentialist work over the years, but was not familiar with this particular play. Upon first read, he loved it. It has taken Bennett several years to bring his No Exit to life, due to other acting commitments. Bennett has appeared with Theâ€" atre & Company in past shows and will be acting opposite Linda Bush in the upcoming The Art of Dining. He also directed Keeping Tom Nice a few seasons back. Bennett likes the thinking man‘s theatre and he thoroughâ€" ly enjoyed the whole No Exit process. Audiences cari be‘a litâ€" tle gun shysof this avant theatre. What exactly does existentialism mean? "A lot of people think of exisâ€" tentialist plays and they think of (Samuel) Beckett and Waiting Gayle D. Erwin for Godot and Endgame," Benâ€" nett says. "They share a comâ€" mon thread because they deal with existential themes. What is the meaning of life? Why are we here? What makes us real? All the usual themes that are explored by Beckett, and Camus, and Sartre â€" the whole school of existentialism that existed right after the war and between them. One has to approach the whole exercise from the text." The original text was in French and Bennett had trouble finding a translation he liked. Eventually he found a comfortâ€" able interpretation â€" a text fusion â€"after a lot of research and historical digging. Kelly Knack, Isabel Cisterna and Henry Sheilds perform in Jean Paul Sartre‘s No Exit at Kitchenerâ€"Waterloo Little Theatre. Bennett maintains No Exit is not that hard to grasp, and does not want audiences to shy away because of its existentialist label. One man and two women are placed in hell because of plentiful sins. One woman ARTS FOCUS (Estelle) has killed her baby. The other woman (Inez}, who was killed by her lover, also caused the death of someone else. The male character (Garcin) is a coward who ran away from the war, and was executed for it. "They are there for specific reasons, but they‘re also there because they made bad choices about their lives which landed them there," Bennett says." That is where the existentialist part comes into play. These choices are also explored in the play. As a consequence, they find themâ€" selves confined to this room forâ€" ever. They are from Spain, Rio and Paris and get to know each other very, very well; very, very quickly." The displaced trio quickly discovers many common bonds about each other, and they try in their own way to reach some sense of redemption. "Sartre makes it pretty clear that none of the three believe in God, but all three of them now td believe in hell. The concept of hell really does come out of a religious belief in heaven and hell," Bennett says. "That was something of an interesting concept on Sartre‘s part. And the other thing I found interestâ€" ing was that they are looking down to Earth from hell. They can see what is going on on Earth if someone on Earth is thinking about them. Earth is not up as if hell was down below. Earth is ‘down there‘, so they are above the Earth and 1 thought that was an intriguing argument on Sartre‘s part." The cast of four consists of Henry Shields, who Bennett has worked with for years. One of their finest collaborations was Keeping Tom Nice, statring Shields as a troubled father, emotionally incapable of lookâ€" ing after his severely handiâ€" capped son. Estelle is played by Kelly Knack, (KWLT), Inez is played by Isabel Cisterna, and the Valet is played by 13â€"yearâ€"old Nathan Storring (Theatre & Company). "Isabel is from Chili and emiâ€" grated to Canada in 1991. She is a playwright in her own right and has a very nice oneâ€"woman show about growing up in Chili." Bennett is happy with his cast members who have chosen to accompany him in his literal sojourn to hell, which doesn‘t look anything like the usual fireâ€" andâ€"brimstone setting. "It is in fact a rather plain room with two couches, a chair and a table. That‘s it. For obviâ€" ous reasons, this becomes clear in the play," Bennett says. "This is not a play you could put in a large theatre because it requires the audience to be close to the stage and the action. This is an actor‘s play, which is the kind of thing I like to do. Less is more." Before Bennett went through Sartre‘s ‘exit‘, he found an amazing new entrance. Last summer, Bennett who is Continued on page 15 Toronto‘s prodigal rock and roll sons, the Lowest of the Low will be playing for the first time in Kâ€"W since "back in the day" tonight (March 13) at Club Abstract. The Low will be joined by special guests Alun Piggins and the Quitters. Tickets are available at the club for $20. Doors open at 9 p.m. Surprising everyone {including themselves), the Lowest of the Low reunited in fall of 2000 for a string of soldâ€"out shows in Toronto and Buffalo All of the shows in Toronto and Buffalo were recorded for the band‘s recently released live album Nothing Short of a Bullet (Â¥es Boy/Universal). The album features live versions of all of their greatest and most loved songs, as well as a cover of Bad Religion‘s "Kerosene" and two new songs â€"â€" one penned by each of the principal songwriters, Ron Hawkins and Stephen Stanley. The first single, "New Westminister Taxi Squad" is currently at rock radio and a video will follow in March. The Kitchenerâ€"Waterioo Art Gallery (kw/ag) has been awarded an Educaâ€" tion Project grant from the Ontario Arts Council for its upcoming printmasterâ€" inâ€"residence program. The printmasterâ€"inâ€"residence proâ€" gram, developed by kw/ag‘s director of education Karen Scott Booth, allows youth and adults the opportunity to explore printmaking under the guidâ€" ance of master printer Stu Oxley and print technician Jessica Masters. Concurrent with the gallery‘s educaâ€" tion exhibit Limited Edition: the Art of the Print, the program includes two sessions involving students of Grade 11 and OAC from Waterloo region, which began last week. The project allows students to be introduced to various printmaking techniques and also includes commuâ€" nity workshops for adults in May and June. Work produced during the stuâ€" dent workshops, along with those of the master printer and print techniâ€" cian, will be exhibited at the gallery from May 23â€"June 23. An instructional video and publication will also be proâ€" duced to assist educators with teaching the discipline of printmaking. Lowest returns to Kâ€"W KWAG receives grant