Synopsis
A widow invests in a restored Shaker chair and discovers the intent of the design: it makes you want to get up and do something. She is inspired to enact both personal and political changes when her friend discovers that a factory is leaking sewage into groundwater. Using wit and environmental activism, the play asks us: how far are you willing to go to fight injustice? And can you live with the consequences?
Reviews
“It isn’t comfortable, the new owner of a Shaker chair confides early in Adam Bock’s The Shaker Chair at Ashby Stage. The way Frances Lee McCain delivers the line, musing with quiet wonder on life’s infinite possibilities, discomfort is as much one of the chair’s assets as its clean, functional design. This is a chair, McCain’s Marion concludes, that makes you want to get up and do things.” – San Francisco Chronicle
Read full review.
“Bock’s quirky character dynamics and unexpected narrative leaps lend the one-act an expansive heft that’s somewhat startling for a piece that runs just 70 minutes.” – Variety
“For female actors older than fifty, the options for roles these days seem relegated to mothers and crazy aunts. So, along comes whippersnapper Adam Bock with The Shaker Chair, an entertaining, thought-provoking showcase for older actresses.” – The Lexington Herald-Leader
Premiered at the Humana Festival, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville
Directed by Marc Masterson
With Kathleen Butler, Brie Eley, Geraldine Librandi, Larry John Meyers, Sarah Peterson and Andy Prosky
