The Uneasy Chair

by Toby Zinman

Somewhere between hot passion and loneliness lies that ideal state of "cool and distant intimacy," the easy companionability of a landlady and her boarder. Miss Pickles and Capt. Wickett have achieved this blissful state. But wait! There is "a brief presentiment of doom!" And lo! Through a series of misunderstandings, they find themselves married, with all coolness vanished, all distance vanquished. Alas! Not to mention, alack!

Evan Smith's extraordinary play, The Uneasy Chair, begins as a spoof of a 19th-century comedy of manners, full of stiff upper lips, Belgravian longings and letters so discreet in their phrasing that their meaning is entirely mistaken, leading to breach-of-promise suits for promises never promised. These in turn lead to hilarious trials and countersuits, allowing five brilliant actors to lay it on very thick indeed.

But "expectations of dashed hopes and thwarted desires had only begun." As if Oscar Wilde had suddenly, in the midst of The Importance of Being Earnest, channeled Samuel Beckett and decided to turn his characters into the ashcan couple in Endgame, the play wipes the smile off the audience's faces (one of those amazing collective moments in the theater). As years pass and immobility and senility take their toll, The Uneasy Chair turns into a serious and moving meditation on aging and marriage ("How many times have we had this argument?"). Not many directors can turn a show on a dime this way, but Jennifer Childs masterfully sculpts the tonal shifts and takes us with her. And then she turns it back again, into a now deeply resonant comedy, and makes us laugh again.

David Howey and Maureen Torsney-Weir are the unhappy couple, and they are, simply, superb. Howey hauls out every classically trained gesture and vowel, and Torsney-Weir flutters her tiny hands and throws glances right and left. Chris Faith and Susan Riley Stevens are splendid as their stylish nephew and niece. Peter Pryor plays a lawyer, a judge, a neighbor lady and a maid, all with tiptop timing. It's one of those rare perfect casts.

The show is a visual delight as well, designed with tongue in the cheekiest of cheeks by Nick Embree, making the Victorian parlor a cartoon, playing with 2-D and 3-D effects that keep our eyes tickled. The lighting (Pete Jakubowski) is fun as well, with spotlights that freeze the action. The costumes (Colleen McMillan) couldn't be finer. All told, 1812 Productions has done it again: another triumph you shouldn't miss.

THE UNEASY CHAIR

Through April 25 1812 Productions, Adrienne Theatre, 2030 Sansom St., 215-592-9560

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