Jean-Paul Sartre's existential play, No Exit, has been added to the Stratford Festival of Canada's 2003 season.

The 1944 drama will play at the Tom Patterson Theatre, June 13-Aug. 29, opening June 24. The production will feature Claire Jullien as Estelle, Stephen Ouimette as Cradeau and Chick Reid as Inez.

In No Exit, according to the Stratford announcement, "a man is brought to a windowless room, and the door locked behind him. Shortly, instead of the torturer he anticipates, he is joined by two women. But as the three occupants describe the various paths that have brought them here, the true nature of their predicament becomes horribly clear."

Also in 2003, the famed Ontario festival is also producing Sartre's The Flies, one of three plays that tell the ancient tale of the House of Atreus, at the Studio Theatre, June 15-Aug. 30.

Philosopher and writer Sartre was a major figure in the 20th century existentialist movement and believed there was no God and no rules and man must fend for himself in a meaningless universe. For Stratford Festival information, visit www.stratfordfestival.ca.

— By Kenneth Jones