Slightly Altered States
The Chess Lesson
January 4-27, 2013
In Residence: January 1-28, 2013
In THE CHESS LESSON, three very different parents have come to take a chess class with their children’s teacher. Despite everyone’s best intentions, the adults keep turning into children, the class keeps slipping out of control, and the teacher is one romance novel away from a nervous breakdown. Four strangers all at a crossroads in their life, alone together in a classroom for children, have no choice but to examine who they are, and remember who they were.
Performances:
January 2013 Thursday – Saturday 8pm and Sunday at 7pm
Sunday January 27, added show 9pm
Ticket Price:
$18 at door, and $15 in advance with discount code: Chess
Location: IRT Theater, 154 Christopher st. #3B (third floor)
Running time: 1 hour 20 min
Live Music: 1/23, 1/25, 1/27, 1/29
By Sari Caine
Directed by Elizabeth Miller
Cast
*Sari Caine
*David Crommett
Meg Fee
*David Rigo
Crew
Set: Daryl Embright
Co-Scenic Design: Elizabeth Miller
Prop Mistress: Lily Fairbanks
Production Manager: David Nelson
Martin Denton of nytheatre.com writes “The Chess Lesson is a delightful and wise comic one-act about indulging in childlike flights of fancy and why we need to do that in the face of sadness or loneliness or bitterness. I recommend it highly.”
David Roberts of Theatre Reviews Limited calls the show “a delightful trope for humankind’s inveterate attempt to understand how things came to be.'”
Brian Scott Lipton of Theater Mania recognizes playwright and performer Sari Caine as “delightfully daffy,” resembling “a younger Carol Kane, easily making audiences guffaw with the antics of her wacky, somewhat unhinged children’s teacher. Caine proves to be both a gifted physical actress, pratfalling immediately upon her entrance … and one who can find emotional truth in everything…”
Dan Callahan of L Magazine writes, “the performances that director Elizabeth Miller gets from her cast are filled with intimate emotional details... The Chess Lesson is one of those multifaceted finds that rewards those who bravely search out new plays at small theaters.”
Sneak Preview-
New Works by:
Larry Kunofsky 1/21 at 8pm
Sari Caine 1/22 at 830pm
Sonya Sobieski with live music 1/23 at 7pm
FREE CHESS LESSON 1/26 1230-2 ALL AGES WELCOME
The Chess Lesson was developed through residencies at Space on Ryder Farm, Jimmy’s No. 43, IRT, and with a donation from the Sidney and Beatrice Albert Foundation. We thank everyone above, and IRT for welcoming us back to their fabulous home after our sold-out inaugural run of The Thing About Dan last February. www.thechesslesson.wordpress.com