The play was first produced in Paris on 22 April 1952 at the Théâtre Lancry directed by Sylvain Dhomme with Paul Chevalier and Tsilla Chelton. The budget was so low that, in the hours before the premiere, Ionesco and his producer "were still trying to collect together, by appeals to friendly café-proprietors, thirty-five matching chairs of the right size and appearance".[16] The production was revived in 1956 at the Studio des Champs-Élysées, directed by Jacques Mauclair.
The first performance in London was in May 1957 at the Royal Court Theatre directed by Tony Richardson starring George Devine and Joan Plowright. It transferred to the Phoenix Theatre off-Broadway in 1958, with Eli Wallach playing the Old Man.
In 1980 Richard Negri directed a production at the Royal Exchange, Manchester starring Gwen Nelson and Frank Thornton.
In 1989 a revival by the American Repertory Theater at the Loeb Drama Center was directed by Andrei Belgrader with Tresa Hughes, Roberts Blossom and Rodney Scott Hudson.
In 1995 and 2007 the play was produced in Mumbai, India, at the Prithvi Theatre.
In 1997 a revival at the Royal Court Theatre in London by Théâtre de Complicité was directed by Simon McBurney, starring Richard Briers and Geraldine McEwan. It transferred to the John Golden Theatre on Broadway in 1998.
In 2002, Cesear's Forum, Cleveland's small minimalist theatre at Kennedy's Down Under, Playhouse Square, OH, presented the play.
In 2004, director/choreographer David Gordon and his wife, dancer/actress Valda Setterfield, appeared in a version of the play, somewhat adapted and re-written by Gordon to the extent allowed by the Ionesco estate. This version of The Chairs was presented in London, at the Barbican Center, in Seattle, Washington, and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York.[17]
In 2006 a revival at the Gate Theatre in London was directed by Thea Sharrock, starring Susan Brown and Nicholas Woodeson.
In 2016 a revival by the Extant Theatre Company, directed by Maria Oshodi, toured the United Kingdom. The play starred Heather Gilmore and Tim Gebbels, both of whom are visually impaired actors.
In 2022 a revival at the Almeida Thetre, directed by Omar Elerian (who also produced a new translation), starred Kathryn Hunter and her husband Marcello Magni. The role of Orator, restyled as "an intrusive stage-hand" was performed by Toby Sedgwick.[18]
In 2023 a revival was staged at the Old Fitz in Sydney, directed by Gale Edwards with Paul Capsis as the Old Woman and iOTA as the old Man. The orator was performed on a video screen by a Max Headroom-like character
