(Re)Staging The Chair

Kathryn Ricketts, dance/theatre artist, and professor at University of Regina and Darcey Callison, dance /theatre artist and retired professor from York University’s Department of Dance, are joining forces to create an interdisciplinary, mult-media infused, re-imagining of Eugene Ionesco’s signature abstract play, The Chairs (1952): titled (Re)Staging the Chair.

Show Details:

Presentations of first draft of Re staging the Chair – September 15th and 17th, 7 PM (doors open at 6:30)

Community workshops (free) – September 15th and 17th, 1 – 3 PM (doors open at 12:30)

Workshops are open to all levels and welcome participants for one or both of the workshops. Registration for workshops at On Cue website.

About (Re)Staging the Chair:

When first produced in 1952, The Chairs was a failure, mostly because audiences were uncomfortable with Ionesco’s theater-of-the-abstract, and the stream-of-consciousness he
used to structure a play about the idea of presence and absence, being negotiated in the memory of two very elderly characters. Remounted in 1956, and then translated to English for a 1957 production in England, The Chairs is now considered one of the most influential and important plays in the canon of Western theatre of the 20th century.

Together Ricketts and Callison bring in-depth knowledge(s) of experimental stage practices, integrated theater, and a sophisticated understanding of the body as this the site for interpreting and embodying complex ideas of history, sexuality, biology, aging, and the ever-present/ever-changing amalgamations between cult, culture, and social cultivation.

This production, (Re)Staging the Chair, has commissioned some of the leading members of our national arts community (Ryan Hill, Ian Campbell and Hanif Janmohamed) who are experimenting with A.I. infused design and sound compositions. 

This team is excited to showcase the first draft of this production  in Vancouver, Victoria and Regina. This presentation will be coupled with free to the public workshops laying bare their methods and strategies for this interdisciplinary and innovative dance/theatre work.