An ancient couple lives in isolation in a tower on a barren island.
The husband has invited the world to invade their loneliness long enough to hear his final "message" to mankind, as delivered by a professional orator. Though the invited throngs arrive, the Orator is the only other character we see; the eager guests are represented by rows of empty chairs, hauled onstage by the faithful, supportive wife. Having greeted their prestigious guests, the old couple swear eternal love and then throw themselves out of the tower's two windows into the sea, leaving the invisible crowd to the Orator , who turns out to be a mute, making only meaningless sounds.
The husband has invited the world to invade their loneliness long enough to hear his final "message" to mankind, as delivered by a professional orator. Though the invited throngs arrive, the Orator is the only other character we see; the eager guests are represented by rows of empty chairs, hauled onstage by the faithful, supportive wife. Having greeted their prestigious guests, the old couple swear eternal love and then throw themselves out of the tower's two windows into the sea, leaving the invisible crowd to the Orator , who turns out to be a mute, making only meaningless sounds.
'...This stunning performance of Romanian playwright Eugene Ionesco's classic, "The Chairs", is a tour de force for Bart Vanlaere and Louise Seyffert, actors from Belgium and Holland, whose Vagabond Productions has an international audience. Their "Chairs," directed playfully by Andrew Dallmeyer of Scotland, was on the Theatre Hit list of the Edinburgh Festival last year. The play is part absurdist comedy, part sorrowful (Groucho) Marxian commentary on human illusion and failure, about the self-delusion that people embrace to give meaning to their lives...'
(American Reporter)
(American Reporter)