Writer: Ballie Dobson
Director: James Tudor Jones
A Brief History Of Chairs is a title that plays chicken with its audience. Is it actually going to be a lecture on chairs by ‘esteemed chairologist Dr Baillie Dobson (BA, MA, PhD, OBE)’ or is something else going to happen? What’s more, which would be more satisfying?
It certainly begins as a lecture. A black-clad techie sits in front of a laptop which projects chair-themed images on a wall. The images are slightly too small. Dobson stands at a microphone, wire trailing off-stage, a stack of chairs acting as a podium in front of him, and reads about chairs. The audience is taken through the thorny issue of whether a settee counts as a chair at all and the etymology of the word ‘settee’. Dobson describes how the chair starts as a symbol of authority, with thrones for royalty and clergy but becomes democratised as time goes on. There are mentions of the Chippendale chairs with their finely turned legs and spider-web backs. A lecture is taking place.
It’s not a completely straightforward lecture though. Dobson sports an elaborate moustache yet dresses like a sous-chef (it’s the checked shoes). He reads robotically, pausing for emphasis at strange moments. Intentional jokes are laboured. He turns each page of the lecture with a flourish and stares at the audience. His eyebrows have a life of their own. Perhaps the joke is that the audience really has attended a lecture on chairs.
It’d be unfair to spoil the rest of A Brief History of Chairs, but the result is a surprising and entertaining hour that’ll have audiences smiling yet scratching their heads.
Runs until 11 November 2023
The Reviews Hub Score
A chair-raising experience
