The Chairs Lesson Plan

Discuss the role Ionesco’s stage directions have in our interpretation of the play.

Follow-up prompts might include: How do the stage directions lend more clarity to some of the more ambiguous moments in the play? Or, how do they tell the story as much as the spoken lines? For instance, what is the significance of writing “[The Old Man and Old Woman advance, downstage, facing the audience and speaking to the invisible Lady, who walks between them]” rather than saying that the Old Man and Old Woman are imagining the Lady? Why in this play in particular might we perhaps need to rely on stage directions more than in other works?

Students might also consider whether,...