KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “The Motion” by Christopher Chen at Shotgun Players Ashby Stage through October 12, 2025.

TEXT OF REVIEW

​​​​​THE MOTION

With so much news in the world today, and with a CDC corrupted by politics and mentally ill cranks, the subject of animal testing seems to fall by the wayside. But the discussion about using animals to test potential life-saving medicines remains as ongoing as the one that drives many to become vegetarians.

This question about animal rights lies at the beginning of “The Motion” by Christopher Chen, now in a Shotgun Players production at the Ashby Stage through October 12th.

The play presents itself as an on-stage debate./ It’s based on a podcast called Intelligence Squared Debates. So, there are two people on either side of the stage, flanking the moderater. The moderator points out that this is a Shotgun production, in Berkeley at the Ashby Stage.

He then announces the motion to be debated, for and against, should animal testing be banned. All four debaters are presented as academics, the older two, the lead debaters, as doctors, the younger two as professors. The audience will be the jury, voting before the debate starts, and then again afterward, and a winner will be announced, based on the changed votes.

The anti-testing lead debater starts by asking the audience to imagine they are in a cage and then murdered. This is what happens to a rabbit. The pro-testing second debater notes that we are fine killing vermin in a restaurant, and we don’t care if the rats or roaches feel pain. The pro-testing lead then tries to find common ground. Nobody wants an animal to suffer. The anti-testing second thinks common ground is impossible. As in real life, the political of course starts to turn personal, and sparks start to fly.

And that’s the start of The Motion, but only the start.

The playwright Christopher Chen has said he likes to think of his shows at times as magic acts, where you may even come in knowing there will be surprises, but then you end up being delighted by what the surprise actually is.

He goes on. I use a lot of rug pulling in my plays. It’s very fun from a structural perspective, but it’s also very serious and meaningful to me. It’s not meant to be a gotcha moment. I’d say the main journey in all of my plays is a digging process, where a reality is presented and we see below that, and then we see below THAT.

Ultimately, The Motion is sometimes very funny, frequently surprising, sometimes confusing, and always entertaining. And it will resonate in your head for days.

The Motion by Christopher Chen, directed by Patrick Dooley, plays at Shotgun Players Ashby Stage through October 12th. For more information, you can go to Shotgunplayers.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area theatre for KPFA.

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