A new production of The Chairs, Eugene Ionesco’s 80-minute absurdist tour de force from 1952, would be treat enough. In the hothouse atmosphere of the Old Fitz Theatre, on a set designed by Brian Thomson and lit by Benjamin Brockman, featuring multi-coloured party lights, stabbing spotlights, jumbles of assorted chairs, a stick figure crowd projected on the walls and a screen that reflects the actors in fuzzy CCTV imagery, the combination of fabled director Gale Edwards with two of Australia’s finest cabaret artists, Paul Capsis and iOTA, is enough to set the place alight.

iOTA and Paul Capsis in The Chairs, Red Line Productions, 2023. Photo © Phil Erbacher

Dressed in drab burlap uniforms and caps that conjure up Soviet gulags, sanatoriums and orphanages (designer Angela Doherty), iOTA and Capsis are the aged bickering couple contemplating the end of the world. Outside the water is rising, inside there is no hope. The Old Woman begs her husband to tell a story. The Old Man is irritated beyond measure at having to repeat a tale he has recited for decades. The Old Man rants, the Old Woman placates, the story...