The Chairs Summary

This play is subtitled "a tragic farce." Stage directions describe a round room with several doors, large windows, a chalkboard, and two chairs. The Old Man looks out at the sea surrounding them, but the Old Woman draws him into the room, encouraging him to play the same games and tell the same stories he's told for the seventy five years they've been married. At first he complains and resists, but then starts his story - of their visit to Paris, which he says ceased to exist thousands of years ago. He and the Old Woman laugh their way to the end of the story, but then the Old Man starts to sob for his mother. The Old Woman eventually manages to comfort him through flattery, reminding him how successful he's been as "general factotum" - flattery she then undermines by...