Les Chaises

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Les Chaises (English The Chairs) is an absurdist "tragic farce" by Eugene Ionesco. It was written in 1952 and had its premiere the same year. 1952 was also the year that Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot was first published, which explored similar themes of repetition, boredom and the complexity of memory.

Les Chaises is a one-act play with two characters, known as Old Man and Old Woman. The setting is an isolated island where the elderly couple is frantically preparing chairs for a series of invisible guests. As the “guests” arrive, the two characters speak to them, and reminisce cryptically about their lives.

A 1998 revival of the play, developed as a collaboration between Theatre de Complicite and the Royal Court Theatre and directed by Simon McBurney, became a surprise hit in London and moved on to a run at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway.

The play was also revived at the Gate Theatre in Notting Hill, London in November 2006. The farewell production of departing artistic director Thea Sharrock, it starred Susan Brown and Nicholas Woodeson in the key roles.