I went into Adirondack Chair Circle wondering what a new play about book bans could add to a conversation whose arguments most of its audience could probably already recite. A world premiere at Steppenwolf seemed worth giving the benefit of the doubt; perhaps it would serve as an accessible way into a larger examination of attacks on education, parenthood and the politics of protecting children. By the end, I was still wondering what, beyond an opportunity to laugh at Republicans, this new play felt that it had accomplished.

Written by Stephanie Alison Walker and directed by Pam MacKinnon, Adirondack Chair Circle gathers a group of affluent suburban mothers in Banna’s backyard, where their social circle doubles as a planning committee for getting books removed from school libraries. Leading up to the important school board vote, Banna (Katrina Lenk), Libby (Sadieh Rifai) and Winona (Wendy Mateo) have their comfortable routine disrupted by neighborhood liberal Evelyn Grace (Caroline Neff).

There is plenty to laugh at, and the cast delivers those laughs with precision. But the script spends so much time rehearsing familiar right-wing arguments – abundant references to acronyms like CRT and SEL, and willy-nilly use of buzzwords like “gender” and “grooming” – that it leaves little room for original examination of what lies beneath them. Statements likely to strike a Steppenwolf audience as outrageous are presented as though their outrageousness alone makes them satire. I wanted the play to do something more with them; exposing hypocrisy can be satisfying, but satire falls flat without anything new to say about its targets.

The most frustrating missed opportunity is Banna’s relationship with her child, Charlie, who has recently begun using they/them pronouns. This comes up repeatedly, but the play gives Banna little space to move beyond a longing look or an exasperated admission that she does not understand. Here is a conflict with the potential to complicate everything she claims to believe: the distance between an abstract political position and the actual person she loves. I wanted to watch her negotiate that distance, whether she managed to cross it or dug herself further in. Either could have revealed more than another familiar exchange about what children should be allowed to read.

Lenk inhabits Banna’s tight-faced suburban-housewife composure so completely that even her expressions feel practiced. There is a particular kind of control in the performance, a sense of someone carefully maintaining her public facade, à la Kardashian-Jenner. The writing rarely gives her enough room to explore what happens when it slips, although Lenk certainly seems capable of delivering more complexity. All four women feel pulled directly from an affluent suburb, and their interactions are among the production’s greatest strengths. The warmth comes with a biting undertone; belonging to this circle clearly requires knowing which disagreements can be spoken aloud.

(left to right) Wendy Mateo and ensemble member Caroline Neffin Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s world premiere of Adirondack Chair Circle. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

Outside of the inner circle, Neff is especially good as Evelyn Grace, capturing the bubbly awkwardness of someone who wears her politics openly and sincerely wants to have conversations that the people around her would prefer to avoid. Her performance is so appealing that it further exposes the imbalance in Winona’s dilemma. Mateo has the difficult task of making her character seem torn between two sides when the script gives the conservative position so little persuasive weight. The audience is given little reason to share Winona’s uncertainty, leaving Mateo straining to supply tension the writing has not fully earned.

Possibly the most compelling performance, however, belongs to the crow. David Darrow plays the bird that frequents Banna’s backyard, serving as narrator, occasional instigator, and a rotating cast of additional characters. His physical acting is remarkable, shifting between avian movement and instantly differentiated human figures, sometimes with barely a moment between them. The device often works beautifully, giving the story a playful perspective beyond the women’s immediate circle.

At the climactic school board vote, though, that flexibility becomes a limitation. With Darrow jumping rapidly from person to person, MacKinnon’s staging prioritizes the comic momentum of the transformations over the reactions of the women whose campaign has brought us here. The scene feels muddied and rushed, and the small interactions that might have made the vote consequential get lost. There was room to let the moment breathe without sacrificing its comedy.

Todd Rosenthal’s scenic design is clean and thoughtfully organized, with smart places for props and an effective use of the backyard’s different spaces. Yet the Ensemble Theater’s arena configuration, with the audience looking down into the action, does little to alleviate the growing feeling that we are watching conservatives in a zoo – gawking as much as observing. The production gives us a comfortable vantage point from which to observe and laugh but does little to make us question that position. Some of the staging also invests more time in various jokes than it earns, particularly the recurring bird-dropping effects. The variety of ways to make bird poop appear does not justify the time spent moving between them.

Spoiler warning: The following paragraph discusses the ending.

The conclusion crystallizes my frustration. After more than two hours spent building Banna’s campaign and its personal consequences, the play leaves her alone and unhappy. Libby arrives to explain that Banna’s unhappiness comes not from regretting her actions, but from having “never actually cared” about the cause she was pursuing. I found this infuriating. Whether Banna’s conviction was sincere matters less than what the play gives up by resolving her behavior this way. There is something much more difficult, and potentially revealing, in examining a person who believes she is doing good while causing harm. People can love their children, think they are protecting them, and still be profoundly misguided. Reducing Banna’s investment to insincerity lets the play sidestep that contradiction just when it might finally have confronted something in a novel way.

I do not expect a comedy to change the mind of every person who sees it, nor does a play even necessarily need to persuade political opponents to justify its existence. But Adirondack Chair Circle offers little to challenge the people already on its side, either. The relationships contain opportunities to examine how people arrive at these beliefs, what sustains them, and what might make them reconsider. Too often, however, those opportunities, the very things I look for in theatre, are discarded in favor of another chance to laugh at those we disagree with.

And, for what it’s worth, did I laugh? Yes. Did I recognize members of my extended family in what I was laughing at, and find some catharsis in that? Also, yes. But I left without feeling that I understood those people any better or had gained much beyond the satisfaction of knowing we disagreed and perhaps a little more vindication. Adirondack Chair Circle finds easy laughs with an audience already on its side, and its cast makes those laughs stick. But humor can coexist with something more, and I wanted a world premiere at Steppenwolf to offer more than just the satisfaction of being in on the joke.

Adirondack Chair Circle is running in Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s Ensemble Theater and has been extended through December 13, 2026. Tickets are available at Steppenwolf Theatre Company.