Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Leanne Jones, Paula Stewart, Donna Ray Coleman, Christine Heaney, Laura Hall, Lucy Graham, Dan Pendleton, Jack Spencer, Lee Burnitt, Shaun Roberts, Bradley Thompson, Alex Clark, Tom Nevitt.

Tell Tale Theatre have already carved out a growing reputation as a production company that doesn’t adhere to the norm, the cosy or thankfully the easy to do. Their production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a glowing testament to that fact, and where angels fear to tread, where other’s might find the ever growing trickle of sweat just too much to bear, Tell Tale Theatre wrack up the pressure on themselves another notch and produce an amazing piece of choreographed art, full of absurdity, lots of insanity and above all tale of what can happen to us all if left alone in the dark too long.

By taking on Eugene Ionesco’s oddly tragic The Chairs, the company have shown that they can stand tall in a city full of creative instinct and flair and even if the disturbing nature of two fractured minds dealing with a society that has become as extinct as the Dodo is too much for some to grasp completely, the message of unfulfilled lives is one that can keenly be grasped.

The splendour of St. George’s Hall added greatly to the performance and gave an almost grandiose, imposing affair to the lives of those whose life had become impossibly torn, split and ruptured and the theatre of grotesque that becomes our lives when there is nobody left to talk for us, to tell our story in the way that is deserved.

There are moments of pure genius within the writing that in amongst the controlled chaos of two lives that have bought them to a point in their lives where seeming glorious suicide is an answer as all that has gone before them have become dust, it might take a moment to filter it through, to fully understand but it is well worth keeping up with as Tell Tale Theatre bring the whole three ringed circus feel to a wonderful conclusion.

With 12 actors effectively portraying two people lost in the invisibility that we all feel at times, all must take great credit, along with the entire team, including Producer Leanne Jones and Choreographer Alan Pugh, in delivering a master class of meticulous mystification.

A real shame that the run for The Chairs was only for three performances as it certainly has all the necessary qualities of great theatre which deserved more time. A real bravo to the team at Tell Tale Theatre, it takes real guts and determination to pull off something this wonderful and still be enigmatically excellent.

Ian D. Hall