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The Cincinnati Shakespeare Company gets existential for this year’s Studio Series.

Jean-Paul Sartre’s “No Exit” takes place in the afterlife when three recently-deceased strangers expect to find red-hot pokers and torture devices, but instead find themselves in something very much like a well-appointed hotel room.

As they share their stories of murder, infidelity and cowardice, however, they learn they are each other’s torturers because “hell is other people.”  

“This masterpiece of existential drama portrays humanity at its most vulnerable and deliciously wicked,” said director Brian Isaac Phillips. “This play examines a raw honesty about mankind because in hell there are no masks to hide behind; all of the cards are laid out on the table.”

“No Exit” was first produced in the spring of 1944 during the Nazi occupation of France.  French writer Jean-Paul Sartre popularized existentialism, the 20th century philosophical movement founded on the belief that individuals create the meaning of their own lives.  

Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame” blends the vaudeville rhythms of “Waiting for Godot” with gallows humor as master and servant struggle for power in what may be the last corner of the world.

Irish novelist and playwright Samuel Beckett was one of founders of what has become known as the theatre of the absurd.

Company members Giles Davies and Jeremy Dubin return to work on a Beckett masterpiece after previously performing together in CSC’s 1999 production of “Waiting for Godot.”

“I am filled with excitement and trepidation,” said Davies, “‘Waiting for Godot’ was one of my fondest theatrical memories; in rehearsal, one of my greatest challenges.”  

Joining the cast of Endgame are guest artists and real life husband and wife team Bill Hartnet and Ellie Shepherd as Nagg and Nell.  

During their lives, both authors won the Nobel Peace Prize for literature, Sartre in 1964 and Beckett in 1969.

• WHAT: “Endgame” by Samuel Beckett and “No Exit” by Jean-Paul Satre
• WHERE: Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, 719 Race St., Cincinnati
• WHEN: through Feb. 10
• COST: $20-$26
• MORE INFO: (513) 381-2273; www.cincyshakes.com