DRAMA DOGS PRESENTS
THE CHAIRS
A play by Eugene Ionesco

Ken Gilbert and E. Bonnie Lewis, Co-Artistic Directors of Santa Barbara's newest theater company present their debut production, Eugene Ionesco's tragic farce The Chairs, March 9 through March 18 at Center Stage Theater.

The Chairs explores an "absurd" situation between an Old Man and Old Woman who have been together for many years. The Old Man and Old Woman explore and resolve their situation. There comes a moment when they realize that their mark upon existence has been made.

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For this production, DramaDogs will use the new translation by Martin Crimp, because of both its style and its content. Partly because of this translation, there has recently been renewed international interest in this "absurdist" classic. In 1997, The Chairs received a critically acclaimed production in London and then later transferred to New York starring Richard Briers and Geraldine McEwan and directed by Simon McBurney.

Eugene Ionesco (1912-1994), considered to be the father of "theater of the absurd," was born in Slatina, Romania. In 1938, at age 26, he settled permanently in Paris. Many of his plays have become staples on the world's stages: The Bald Soprano (1950), The Lesson (1951), The Chairs (1952), and Rhinoceros (1960) have been performed steadily since the 1950s. Ionesco's work has often been likened to Samuel Beckett's, but most of his works are funnier than Beckett's, more verbal, richer in farcical action and far less despairing. Stylistically, absurd theater emerged in the 1950s and early 1960s. In 1961, Martin Esslin, in his book, The Theatre of the Absurd, described the absurd as "the sense of metaphysical anguish at the absurdity of the human condition."

E-mail the DramaDogs: dramadog@west.net

TIMES: Preview Thursday, March 9, 8:00 P.M.
Fridays & Saturdays March 10-11 and 17-18, at 8:00 P.M.
Saturday Matinees March 11, and 18 at 2:00 P.M. with audio description for the vision impaired

TICKETS: Thursday March 2, $12 General.
All other performances, $15 General / $12 Students & Seniors

Box Office Information

Tickets may also be purchased by telephone using
Visa, Master Card, and American Express.
Phone (805) 963-0408 (V / TDD).

LOCATION AND DIRECTIONS
Center Stage Theater is located in the Paseo Nuevo Center, upstairs at the intersection of Chapala and De la Guerra Streets, Santa Barbara, California.

Take Highway 101 to Carrillo Street, exit and turn toward the mountains (northbound turns right, southbound turns left). Proceed to Chapala Street (fourth light) and turn right. Proceed 1-1/2 blocks and turn left into either of two entrances to Paseo Nuevo. Park near the elevator, or proceed to roof-level parking.