Show reviewed:  Chair
Playwright:  Chris Churchill
Date saw the show:  July 24, 2008
Place saw the show: Kansas City Fringe Festival,  Kansas City, Missouri
Company: The Co-Governors of Space
Principal Leads: Julie Espada, Micah Fortenberry, Chris Hauser, Jessica Mondres, Matt Riggs, Mike Schmitt, Chris Churchill and The Chair
Director:  Chris Churchill 

 
Reviewed by: Deborah Ground Buckner (Kansas City Correspondent - USA) 

I appreciate metaphor as well as the next person, probably better than some of the next people.  Chair, however, is a play that takes a metaphor, obscures it beyond recognition, then shouts "Hah!" at the audience for being stupid enough to pay $10 to  see the play.

All but one of the characters in the play are presented as members of the audience (and do not sit closer than the fourth row-I was on the second and found myself uncomfortably in the middle of the action) who are watching a "play" that is nothing more than a chair on stage.  They talk and bicker throughout the "performance," often about themselves and their relationships but also about what the chair is doing and the meaning to be derived from it. 

The "audience members" include brothers Brett (Mike Schmitt) and Allan (Chris Hauser); Lory (Julie Espada), a former colleague of Brett's at a bank; Scott (Micah Fortenberry), Lory's date and Brett's replacement at the bank; and another couple (Chris Churchill and Jessica Mondres).   All did a capable job of reciting lines, but it was evident none of the actors believed the show either.

The exception is the "House Manager," played by Matt Riggs.  This is a delightfully obnoxious role, and Riggs, scowling through the beam of a headlamp, truly seemed to get into the part, berating the "audience members" for coming in late, telling them to "shut up" and ordering them to stay away from the stage.  The few moments of humor came from his performance.   He was deliciously un-likeable.   
I tried to play along.  Does the chair represent theater in general?  Is it supposed to be a god-like figure?  This was not an enjoyable mental puzzle, but a desperate reaching out to gain some understanding of what this was supposed to be.  Though I am sorely tempted to save all my readers the $10 and the lashed-out ridicule, followed by having their heads beaten with the meaning as if it were a 2x4, I will not reveal the ending.

All this being said, there is a nice little message in the end of the play; perhaps a rewrite can find a better way to present it.