It’s not often when an opportunity arises to see a play with more than 40 chairs, but this weekend is an exception.
“The Chairs,” by Eugene Ionesco, opens at the MSU Auditorium’s Arena Theatre on Friday.
Actor Matthew Alfano, a theater senior, knows most students will be studying this weekend, but hopes they’ll come see the play anyway.
“It’d be a perfect play to take a break,” he said.
It may not be a break from thinking though. Ionesco’s style is very abstract and different from other theater.
Director and theater graduate student Ben Sumrall said the play demonstrates how people must create meaning through language.
“We have to create new meaning from what we’re given,” he said. “The words we use shape our reality.”
For the better part of the hour and a half play, only two characters hold the stage, an old man and an old woman, played by Alfano and theater senior Lindsey Stakoe.
For Stakoe, “The Chairs” is not like many plays she’s done in the past.
“The different part is there’s no one to talk to,” she said. “It’s so abstract that you can put any meaning on it.”
The story is about the old man’s vision.
“The old man believes he has the message that will solve humanity’s problems,” Sumrall said. So the man invites everybody to come hear the message, but the people are all imagined.
“I think the best word to describe the old man is ‘confused,’” Alfano said. “He has this message, but can’t say it.” Instead, he hires an orator.
To explain the imagined people, Sumrall took some creative license.
“The whole show has kind of been given a hallucinogenic feel,” he said.
To kick off their hallucinations, dancers Gina Lalama, a social relations sophomore, Kara Vaughn, a communication junior and Sarah Grossbart a journalism freshman grace the stage for effect.
Alfano said this piece is especially difficult as an actor because many lines are spoken to imaginary people, so he has no one to interact with.
“The problem most actors have is letting yourself go,” he said.
Sumrall said he’s pleased with his cast of two and is glad to see his vision fulfilled.
“The actors have clearly put a lot of themselves into the play,” he said.
By the end of a dress rehearsal Tuesday night, both Alfano and Stakoe were glowing with energy.
