When Sartre’s first two plays (No Exit and The Flies) were published in the United States in 1947, Eric Bentley greeted them in the New York Times Book Review with the words: “Everyone interested in modern drama, modern literature, or modern ideas might well read this book. . . . I am inclined to think . . . that Sartre’s remarkable talent finds more satisfactory expression in the theatre than elsewhere. After all, what is the chief fault that people claim to have found in his novels, his essays, and his lectures—is it not their theatricality?” John Huston directed No Exit on Broadway, and Erwin Piscator did a famous production of The Flies at his Dramatic Workshop. Both plays have become standard items in the modern repertoire all over the world. Since then Dirty Hands was seen on Broadway with Charles Boyer as Hoederer, and The Respectful Prostitute moved to Broadway from Bleecker Street when the New Stages production was acclaimed by the critics. In Eric Bentley’s words: “With those of Brecht, the plays of Camus and Sartre are the chief dramatic events of the present.”

Sartre Jean-Paul

No exit, and three other plays