Photo by Ben Rose Photography.
Presented by Hub Theatre Company of Boston
Written by Eugène Ionesco
Directed by Bryn Boice
Intimacy Choreography by Lauren Cook
February 21 – March 8 2026
BCA Plaza Black Box Theatre
539 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02116
2 hours with ONE 15-minute intermission
Suitable for 13+
Critique by Kitty Drexel
BOSTON — Theatre of the Absurd plays are why normies make fun of us. These plays are, by definition, intentionally bizarre. If you enjoy works by Beckett, Jean Genet, Pinter, etc., you’ll enjoy Hub Theatre Company’s production of Eugène Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano and The Lesson, currently at the BCA. Even if you don’t but do want to support well-assembled fringe theatre, it’s worth your while to check out Hub’s current offering.
To summarize: The Bald Soprano explores the absurdity of normalcy through repetition and the actors’ unrealistically strong reactions to quotidian occurrences such as reading the newspaper, darning a sock, and receiving guests for dinner. In the living room designed by Justin Lahue, Mr. Smith (Cleveland ‘Mac’ Nicoll, delivering some epic physical comedy) and Mrs. Smith (Siobhan Carroll, who’s appropriately strung out in an impossible living situation ) discuss the day’s events while they wait for their dinner guests to arrive. Mary (Lauren Elias, who dusts and knows things) informs the Smiths that the Martins have arrived.
As the Smiths scurry out, the Martins enter and begin a conversation so full of repetition that it looks and sounds like a Meisner exercise microdosing meth (thanks to the staging and direction by Bryn Boice). Mr. Martin (Brooks Reeves) and Mrs. Martin (Jessica Golden, giving it all for a man who doesn’t even recognize her) recount their day as they wait for the Smiths. When the two couples finally unite, they are interrupted by the Fire Chief (Cristhian Mancinas-García, as a human aprodesiac in a role that doesn’t quite suit him). Mary joins them in the living room, and all Hell breaks loose into a storytelling, dance-breaking, modern resistance montage to the sultry tunes of U2, REM, and Rage Against the Machine. The breakdown is the most metal thing we’ve seen all year, a masterpiece of electrified chaos in tutus.
The Lesson is about an elderly Professor (Brooks Reeves, with seemingly endless energy) who tries to indoctrinate his Pupil (Lily Ayotte, who is as devoted to her silence as she is to her dialogue) through arithmetic and linguistics. She enters his French flat at the beginning of the play. The Professor won’t let her leave, even when she complains of physical illness. Marie, the maid (Elias, 2-for-1 maids), cleans up his mess. The play is an analogy for our current times that Reeves and Ayotte tackle with politically appropriate irreverence. Let the fascists choke on the ice in their cold, white milk.
Photo by Ben Rose Photography.
In watching The Bald Soprano, I couldn’t help but ask myself: “Is this Hell?” This is partly because The Bald Soprano (1950) bears a striking resemblance to Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialist play No Exit (1944), which originated the phrase, “Hell is other people.” In it, as in The Bald Soprano, several human beings trapped in a room together miscommunicate excessively. The Bald Soprano differs from No Exit in its manipulation of language. Words can mean anything you want them to mean when you try hard enough. Something similar occurs in The Lesson. If this is heterosexual culture, then no, thank you.
Marissa Wolf, costume designer, does exemplary work in both one-act plays. From the matching skirts and shoes of Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Martin’s ensembles to the red buttons on the Pupil’s uniform, Wolf’s pimps the absurdities of normalcy to her audience.
The popular adage goes, Real life is stranger than fiction. Hub Theatre Company accepts this adage as a challenge. Love Ionesco or not, the cast and Boice succeed in their efforts. If you’re going – and you should give it a shot: gird your loins for righteous absurdity, folks.
