«Sarà giorno fatto dentro i miei occhi». "Porta chiusa" e il teatro dell’altro

How is the relation between subjectivity and otherness outlined in Sartre’s theatre? This essay intends, first of all, to find an originally theatrical dynamic in the Sartrean constitution of the self. If consciousness is perceived as an object only in relation to otherness, through the exchange of looks that characterizes the being-for-others, then theatre can be considered a mirror of the experience of the world as a space of encounters. Secondly, the essay intends to find this theatrical device in paradigmatic operation within the infernal room of "No Exit". Each character of the play mirrors the other, in a triangulation that indefinitely multiplies the concrete relationships with others described in Being and Nothingness. The suspended time of the closed room does not need divine judgments or punishments: the absolute nakedness in front of the eyes of others is enough for itself, implying a mutual recognition and a constitutive alienation of consciousness. The infernal situation brings with it an endless conflict, but also a sense of existence that takes place at the crossroads between ex-stasis, emptiness and metamorphosis, which may suggest an unprecedented interpretation of the statement “hell is other people”.