Five Characters in Search of an Exit is a web-based retelling of a Twilight Zone episode, by the same name, which first aired in December of 1961. The TV episode was based on a short story by Marvin Petal called “The Depository,” and it’s title is a twist on two separate plays, Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921) and Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit (1944). It also served to inspire a full-length film in 1997 titled Cube. The aim of this project is to continue the long legacy of the story through yet another medium, and to conjure the eerie and imaginative nature of the Twilight Zone through interactivity with the viewer.

Rod Serling’s full opening narration of Five Characters in Search of an Exit:

Clown, Hobo, Ballet Dancer, Bagpiper and an Army Major. A collection of question marks. Five improbable entities stuck together in a pit of darkness. No logic, no reason, no explanation. Just a prolonged nightmare in which fear, loneliness and the unexplainable walk hand in hand through the shadows. In a moment we'll start collecting clues as to the “whys”, the “whats” and the “wheres”. We will not end the nightmare, we'll only explain it because this, is The Twilight Zone...

Original Twilight Zone episode information:

Original air date: December 22, 1961

Season 3 | Episode 14

Directed by Lamont Johnson

Teleplay by Rod Serling

Cast

Susan Harrison as Ballerina

William Windom as Major

Murray Matheson as Clown

Kelton Garwood as Hobo

Clark Allen as Bagpiper