The Chairs
Cutting Ball Theater’s current staging of mid-20th-century French playwright Eugene Ionesco’s “The Chairs” is probably one of the best theater of the absurd productions to be seen locally — ever.
The almost-entirely-two-character tragic farce, or farcical tragedy, is blessed with numerous advantages: A new translation by artistic director Rob Melrose, who turned some of Ionesco’s nonsensical French wordplay into equally nonsensical English-language wordplay.
This tragic farce, in the tradition of Cutting Ball’s productions of Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano (2010) and Victims of Duty (2008), is as comedic as it is heartbreaking. An elderly couple living in a lighthouse 1000 years after an apocalypse decides to host a final party. They invite and introduce all of their friends as they enter, but although the room fills with chairs, all of the guests are imaginary. Melrose’s new translation will hold up a mirror to contemporary social networks, and offer a fresh take on this absurdist classic. Director Annie Elias returns to Cutting Ball following her 2012 hit Tenderloin.