In chess, the only piece which can become a queen is a pawn; through mastery and self-preservation, the lowest ranked piece can suddenly become the one who can win the game. That power dynamic surges through Michael Ross Albert’s Anywhere, currently on stage at The Assembly Theatre. Directed by original cast member Cass Van Wyck, this unique production of Anywhere will keep you on the edge of your seat and wanting to come back for more.

Liz is away at a work conference and the week is just wrapping up. She comes back to her Air BnB to find her hostess, Joy, waiting for her. You can cut the tension between the two of them with a knife, although Liz can’t seem to figure out why. She knows they partied together the night before, but she also doesn’t remember what time she went to bed, or truthfully very much after they began to play chess together. Joy remembers tho…and she has proof. As the two attempt to finish their game of chess, they come to realize that the real game is happening with their words, not the pieces on the board.

Amelia Mielke-O’Grady’s set design for Anywhere really does make it feel like anywhere; the light grey tiles with a darker grey wall make the room feel small, and the lack of art or unique furniture makes it feel like no one really lives there. Though the LEGO on the floor and cute sign denoting “Ethan’s Room” (with a little Pikachu drawn for good measure) certainly imply that there’s a child about. It is also a truth universally to be acknowledged that if the weight of an object on stage is noted, that object will later be used to bludgeon someone (though I won’t mention what it is, but this Chekhov’s gun approach fits the play to a tee). This almost claustrophobic setting perfectly fits the tension of the play; there needs to feel like there’s no way out for both the characters and the audience witnessing their actions.

Michael Ross Albert’s writing is impeccable; he’s able to string us along, letting us feel like we know what’s going to happen until he hits us with some kind of monumental twist. Anywhere is certainly no exception to this. There were certain elements to the story which I was able to clearly see from the outset, only to have some new piece of information cast an entirely different light on the situation and surprise me. The metaphor of the chess game is a brilliant one for this play, as it’s the two women attempting to out maneuver each other to gain power over themselves and one another. He has a talent for writing characters who truly feel like real people, and creating unique spaces for very different characters to naturally interact. It’s like he hurls a group into an arena and lets them battle out their differences in class or age or wealth or whatever the case may be. And we get to see their poignant and biting arguments, at times taking sides, at times judging everyone involved.

In Anywhere, Joy and Liz even make comments about how they normally wouldn’t have met, and yet how they could see themselves in the other woman. Which brings me to the ingenious casting/staging of this show: Kaitlin Race and Anne van Leeuwen play both roles on alternating nights. This is a brilliant move by Van Wyck and the rest of the creative team; the text lends itself so beautifully to it and the whole time I was watching, I was thinking about how things might look if it was the other way around. At the performance I attended, Rice played Liz and van Leeuwen played Joy, and oh how I wish I had the time to go back and see the production again with the reversed roles!

I had seen Race and van Leeuwen in Patty Picker at the Toronto Fringe in 2024, so I knew that they work well together, but to see them have this level of animosity between them is electric. Race’s Liz is formal and uptight, someone you can imagine goes way overboard when they do decide to let loose. Van Leeuwen’s Joy is at times pitiful, at others deeply manipulative, so much so that I was rather afraid of what she was going to do next. There’s clearly a trust between these two actors which translates into intense and visceral performances from both of them.

Anywhere left me feeling like I had been holding my breath for the entire hour; though there are moments of laugh-out-loud comedy built into the production, the perfect intensity which slowly crescendo’s throughout the piece is a work of true artistry.

Anywhere runs at The Assembly Theatre until April 2. For more information and tickets, visit: https://www.theassemblytheatre.com/anywhere

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Cover Photo: Anne van Leeuwen and Kaitlin Race. Photo by Mark Kreder.

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