Chaos of Adolescence - Reflections on seeing The Chaos That Has Been And Will No Doubt Return at Southwark Playhouse
/On Saturday 6th September, the Jumped Up team travelled with a group of young people to London to see The Chaos That Has Been And Will No Doubt Return at Southwark Playhouse, ahead of its arrival at Peterborough College on 23rd October. We wanted to experience the show for ourselves: it’s hard to convince others a play is worth seeing if you don’t yet know why. Within minutes of the performance beginning, we understood.
Louise Garwood, Freshtah Nabizadah, Jen Roberts, Emily Steele-Dias, Jen Ramm, Sam Smith
“Although the tension in the conflict was prevalent, it was not a moody play. It was entertaining and wholesome, especially in how it presented male friendships.”
In Chaos, teenagers guide us through their hometown of Luton: bedrooms, bus stops, the corner shop where they might just get served, and finally the ‘house party of the year’ - the birthday of the ‘pengest girl in Luton,’ Lakesha. The party unravels, and suddenly we feel the discomfort of being caught between childhood and adulthood: ready to feel grown-up, but not yet equipped to handle grown-up consequences.
The play moves effortlessly between comedy and sincerity. One moment we’re laughing while young people persuade strangers to buy them alcohol; the next, we’re swept up in the rush of a first kiss. Threaded through are glimpses of politics creeping into young lives: the fear of debt, or the difficulty of dreaming about a future when daily survival already feels overwhelming.
“The characters take pride in the vibrancy of their hometown, referring fondly to the bossman who runs the corner shop, or the different cultural communities that bring colour and life to their streets. Chaos underscores the idea that home is what you make of it.”
Chaos is also a masterclass in multiroling. Three actors embody more characters than you can count, supported by subtle flickers of light and sound, but carried above all by their performances. Each brings such conviction that no single member of the ensemble overshadows the others. One moment that has stayed with me comes near the end: a teenager speaks with satisfaction about the working-class roots of the Lutonian accent, and the words radiate palpable pride.
I thought of my own hometown. Did you know Rochdale holds the Guinness World Record for the largest pancake ever made? In 1994, the town hall car park was closed so the co-operative movement could make a three-tonne pancake, 15 metres wide. I grew up believing the co-op just meant the supermarket, but the co-operative movement was founded in Rochdale in 1844 by people who believed in working together - one that now has 17 million members. Pride in the run down hometown where you grew up wanes, I’ve found, but it also sharpens with distance. We meet the young people in Chaos before they are old enough or wise enough to work that out for themselves.
Freshtah Nabizadah, Jen Ramm, Louise Garwood, Emily Steele-Dias, Jen Roberts
We all remember those magic summers on the edge of adulthood, and Chaos captures that pulse of teenage, woven through with stories that could come from any small town. It is sharp in showing how fear can sour into rage, but it leaves us with something more enduring: a sense of optimism. Your beginnings don’t have to dictate your future - and you don’t need to throw them away, either.
If you’ve ever felt that push and pull between where you’re from and where you’re going, you’ll find something in Chaos. Don’t miss it at Peterborough College on Thursday 23rd October.