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Review
Chair
The
Duke on 42nd Street
December 20, 2008
Morgan Wycks
mwycks@nyconstage.org
Edward Bond's Chair is something one rarely sees on these shores. Bleak, terrifying, rampant with paranoia, Mr. Bond's play takes us into a society that is Beckett's domain by way of George Orwell. Mesmerizingly stirring thanks to Robert Woodruff's unflinching direction, Chair is that rare play that asks the classic "what if" and then asks "what else?"
An extremely troubled young man, Billy, sits at a table discussing his art work while he creates it. Is he retarded? Autistic? High end ADD? Psychotic? When his care-taker (guardian?) arrives, she, Alice, doesn't simply question the emotional state she is in - one of anxiety-provoking tension - but accepts it as a way of life. It's as if some unseen force is always threatening her. When she espies a police officer/soldier and his female prisoner outside her building waiting for transportation to pick them up, something familiar about the prisoner transfixes her. Billy suggests taking a chair to the officer so that he can rest and then Alice might be able to confirm her suspicions about who the prisoner might be. Why risk the attention of the officer one might ask but that would divest the production of its revelations. Suffice it to say when Alice follows through on her endeavor, the chair becomes anything but a tool for rest and relaxation.
The actors imbed themselves in their characters so that the world of 2077 in which the action takes place is as believable as the world we exist in right now. Alfredo Narciso actually finds some humor as well as hair-trigger fear within the beastliness of the soldier while Joan MacIntosh without a word exudes unheard of pain as the prisoner. Annika Boras as a bureaucratic automaton ready to pounce on any piece of info that might pop up convincingly displays how unconvincingly human she thinks she can be. Will Rogers, who often tries to sell a role, here takes the part of Billy to places of uncommon insights, a man/boy who can't sit still because his body and his intellect have outgrown its container. And as Alice, Stephanie Roth Haberle at first seems tentative in the role until later one realizes it's Alice who has commitment issues of a whole other kind. Ms. Haberle smartly allows the character to reveal itself in small stages.
The environment, despite its simplicity, is as tangible as a shirt you might currently be wearing thanks to the design team (David Zinn - Set and Costumes, Mark Barton - Lighting, Michael Attias - Music and Sound). There is an element of pretension that hovers at the edges of the production as it often can with works about the future, not to mention Mr. Bonds' plays as a whole, but this company's commitment takes us to a place that could be just around the corner.
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