The Straw Chair

★★★★★ Five Stars, The Upcoming
★★★★★ Five Stars, Time and Leisure
★★★★★ Five Stars, London Pub Theates
★★★★.5 Four and a Half Stars, The Reviews Hub
★★★★ Four Stars, ReviewsGate
★★★★ Four Stars, Everything Theatre
★★★★ Four Stars, Broadway World
★★★★ Four Stars, West End Best Friend
★★★★ Four Stars, London Living Large
★★★★ Four Stars, Close Up Culture
★★★★ Four Stars, ajlovestheatre
★★★★ Four Stars, Morning Star

Standing Ovation Nomination from London Pub Theatres
OffWestEnd Award Nomination for Performance Ensemble
OffWestEnd Award Nomination for Costume Design – Carla Joy Evans

Best Production Finalists London Pub Theatre

Best Actor Award from London Pub Theatres for Siobhan Redmond

1735. Isabel, barely seventeen, is sent from Edinburgh and the life she has always known, to live with her new husband on Gaelic-speaking St Kilda, an island on the furthest edges of the Outer Hebrides, in the storm-tossed waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Struggling to adapt to island life, Isabel meets Rachel – a wild, seemingly mad woman, shunned by the local inhabitants. Over time, Isabel learns that Rachel is none other than the infamous Lady Grange, kidnapped by her husband following their bitter divorce and long imprisoned on the island. Lady Grange clings with tragic dignity to the two things she has left in the world – a consuming rage and an old straw chair.

Inspired by a true story, The Straw Chair is a modern Scottish classic, exploring liberty, marriage, madness and incarceration, and female empowerment, against the backdrop of the lost way of life of the Western Isles.

First performed in 1988 at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in a co-production between Focus Theatre and the Traverse, and revived on an extensive Scottish tour in 2015, The Straw Chair finally receives its English premiere at the Finborough Theatre.

WHAT IS “SCOTTISH” PLAYWRITING ANYWAY?
On Friday, 13 May 2022 there will be a post-show discussion, free to ticketholders of evening performance, with Louise Stephens, Creative Director of Playwrights Studio Scotland; Jenny Lee, Actor and Founder of Attic Theatre; and Neil McPherson, Playwright and Artistic Director of the Finborough Theatre.

COVID SAFE
As an intimate theatre venue, we are taking every possible precaution to ensure the safety of performers, staff, and audience members during the current pandemic. Audience members will be temperature-checked upon their arrival at the theatre, and masks are mandatory at all times, including during the performance. Our staff will be wearing masks for audience members’ safety as well as their own. In order to ensure that the Finborough Theatre is still accessible for those who are CEV (Clinically Extremely Vulnerable) or who would just prefer it, all Sunday matinee performances are Covid Pass Sundays when we will ask for proof of vaccination as well as mask wearing. We have reduced our audience capacity to 80% and temporarily increased our ticket prices to reflect this. We have been reviewing these protocols every month and will lift them as soon as it is safe to do so. For full information, please visit our Covid-19 policy page.