Your Chicago Guide’s tickets for two to the press viewing of Adirondack Chair Circle courtesy of Steppenwolf Theatre.
Steppenwolf Theatre continues its 51st season with the world premiere of Chicago playwright Stephanie Alison Walker’s biting satire Adirondack Chair Circle. Directed by Tony Award winner Pam MacKinnon, the play has been extended through December 13th, 2026, due to popular demand.
A gaggle of suburban moms, armed with pickleball paddles, hard kombucha and charcuterie boards, are ready to take on the school board in the fight of their lives, attempting to ban the controversial books available to their kids in the school library. But is the inner circle all on the same page? This piercingdrama exposes the hilarious hypocrisy of the causes we claim and the company we keep.
Censorship, when defined plainly, is rarely if ever welcome. But what if it is hidden behind the well-meaning intentions? What if the good fight for the well-rounded education for the children somehow goes rogue? What would you do if you find yourself on the side of censorship, however unwittingly? Do you stick to your guns, refusing to listen to all sides, blindly following some questionable guru’s guidance? Do you try to keep an open mind? Or does everyone not on “your” side automatically become a villain?
Three women plot to fight to have books removed from school libraries. The reasons are varied, but all of them involve the content these suburban moms find objectionable. Assuming that if banned books are not easily available, their kids will never consume them, the Charcuterie Board Cohort faces off with the school board. And coincidentally with another suburban mom who disagrees. The conflict is sharp, pointed and witty. And not without violence. Because when the following is blind, someone is bound to get hurt.
Adirondack Chair Circle is highly relatable because all of us can picture this story happening in our school districts. Some of us already had to choose sides. Others already had to fight for their beliefs and their children’s education. We have watched the news reports of books banned and sometimes burned. And we don’t have to travel far to encounter these stories.
Staged in Steppenwolf’s Ensemble Theatre, the play engages the audience from all angles, including them in the developing dilemma. What would you do? What is your story? Which is the side of the good guys? As all good plays do, Adirondack Chair Circle lets the audience decide for themselves. Ping-ponging between a suburban backyard, a pickleball court, and a school board meeting, the drama sites books already banned in some places in our surreal real life. Censorship, it seems, is alive and well, both on stage and among us.
Adirondack Chair Circle is well written, brilliantly acted, and is definitely worth seeing. Its subject matter is timely and poignant. We took it all in almost in one breath, or so it felt. 10/10, no notes. Go see for yourself.
Adirondack Chair Circle is now extended through December 13th, 2026. It is on stage at Steppenwolf’s Ensemble Theater, 1646 North Halsted Street, in Chicago’s Clybourn Corridor. Tickets are available by calling the box office at (312)335-1650 or online here.