REVIEW: Chaos... as enjoyable as it is bonkers

Friday 23 June 2023

Never has a play been so aptly named as Chaos by Laura Lomas. It's bananas.

Staged at the Arts Centre, the play was the latest offering from YouTheatre, and featured a cast of eight young actors.

At this point in the review, it would make sense to give a summary of what the play is about, who the main characters are or a little teaser as to the action that will unfold.

The thing is, Chaos doesn't have a plot (as far as I could tell), none of the characters have any names and an awful lot happened in a relatively short space of time.

Pictured: The cast of YouTheatre in their latest show, Chaos by Laura Lomas. (Wayne Stewart) 

All the actors are dressed identically in all black and swap in and out of short little dramatic vignettes covering topics like domestic abuse, racism, climate change humanity's place in the universe and pretty much anything else you can think of.

Despite what this list might suggest, it's never preachy or moralistic - these things are touched on insofar as you're watching a group of young people try (mostly in vain) to wrap their heads around them. 

Similar themes and ideas keep cropping up, and similar motifs all hint that the disconnected, apparently unrelated scenes form part of a wider whole.

You'll keep seeing things like a small child bouncing a football, someone comforting a friend (or stranger) with flowers, a butterfly with a broken wing, and its all punctuated up by the same blue-lit dance break that pops up occasionally just to add to the overriding feeling of 'what-is-going-on?'-ness. 

Pictured: Never has a play been so aptly named as Chaos. (Wayne Stewart) 

Watching Chaos is a bit like joining a conversation you have no context for half-way-through, and by the time you've just about got a grasp of what's going on you're whisked off to another one and have to start again. It's completely chaotic (haha) but it's oddly mesmerising.

It all adds up to create the feeling that quite literally anything could happen which is, I think, the point. 

The ensemble cast, who are all aged between 14 and 19, all put in some truly touching performances. It's well worth seeing and you'll absolutely come away having enjoyed yourself... but you'll most likely not have a clue what was going on. It's great fun. 

WHERE TO WATCH...

Chaos is running at the Jersey Arts Centre until Saturday 24 June.

You can pick up your tickets HERE. 

Pictured Top: Chaos by Laura Lomas is on at the Arts Centre until Saturday. (Wayne Stewart)