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"No Exit, No Arrival"

A Beckettian fragment in two voices

Characters:

• Camus (on the platform, holding a ticket)

• Sartre (inside a carriage, visible through the window)

• Silence (offstage, but present)

(Dim light. A platform. A train stands still, doors closed.

Camus paces, ticket in hand. Sartre sits in the carriage,

staring outward. Neither moves closer.)

Camus: The train has left.
             (looks at ticket)
             But it has not moved.

Sartre:  (through the window)
             Hell is other people.
             Especially when they sit too close.

Camus: I am alone.
             That is worse.
             Or better.
             Or neither.

Sartre: There is no exit.
             Only compartments.
             And coughs.

Camus: I missed my ride.
             Perhaps that was the ride.
             Perhaps this is the punishment.

Sartre: Punishment?
            No.
            Merely company.
            Which is worse.

(Silence enters. Both men look at it.

Silence says nothing. They nod.)

Camus: One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

Sartre:  One must imagine the carriage full.
             Forever.

(The train whistle blows. Nothing moves.

Lights dim. Curtain does not fall.)

.