BWW Reviews: The Second City's LET THEM EAT CHAOS at Woolly Mammoth

Second City has returned to The Woolly Mammoth for their sixth visiting production, LET THEM EAT CHAOS. Crafted specifically for DC audiences and performed by an ensemble of five talented actors, LET THEM EAT CHAOS proves that laughter can make you feel better, but it can also make you think, and recognize what is still very broken.

Director BILLY BUNGEROTH and Set and Lighting Designer COLIN K. BILLS send the ensemble all over the stage and into the audience. Their playground of insanity consists of three tall towers with windows, a short bridge between the left two structures, and a bulbous sphere used to display images, videos and backgrounds.

The show is composed of several short vignettes with blackouts in between, as well as a few musical numbers and longer, reappearing scenes. Many of the characters repeat throughout the show, helping to keep the theme running throughout all that is happening. The actors use a number of props, from Mickey Mouse hands to mullets to walkers, and they make the transitions look easy.

To describe the scenes or any of the characters in too much detail seems unfair to the colorful, wonderful cast of actors performing in this show. HOLLY LAURENT, ADAM PEACOCK, KEVIN SCIRETTA, NICCOLE THURMAN and TRAVIS TURNER define excellence when it comes to character ranges, and weaving all that is verbally thrown at them from the audience into a smart show that hits notes on all emotions. Each actor can make you believe he or she is a totally different age, gender, and persona, and it's incredibly fun. One minute Peacock is a "bro", the next, he's a troublemaking deaf teenager.

The central, guiding idea of LET THEM EAT CHAOS is love. Niccole Thurman begins the show with the adage, "To the world, you may be one person, but to one person, you may be the world." As general an idea as this sounds for a show composed this way, it all fits. LET THEM EAT CHAOS tells stories of marriage, having children, going to the prom, going to war, dating, the workplace. It's all there. And, given the tendencies of 2015 audiences, there's a fair amount about the love of technology and what it is doing to us and our relationships.

While there are a number of current references in the show, from Donald Trump's media coverage to Secret Service snafus, the core material is simply classically funny. Sciretta and Peacock repeatedly take the stage as two cowboys with random thoughts, just wondering what it would be like to be someone different. Thurman and Laurent briefly play roommates who are moving apart and hating it, and later craft a more over the top version of the separation involving a lesbian couple in a trailer park.

The show also pushes its audience to think about problems, and what is actually a legitimate issue. Turner and Sciretta end the first act with a rap battle, demonstrating direct contrast between the words of one, and the actual fears of the other. While you are encouraged to laugh, the actors also remind you that there are things to be fixed, and they are less than funny. If this prompts you to believe that this show preaches, far from it. LET THEM EAT CHAOS effectively uses laughter and words to invoke food for thought, which is never a bad thing. This show is so smart.

As mentioned, LET THEM EAT CHAOS is an improvisational show, and the ensemble utilizes audience participation. For those who have not been to improv before, imagine the variance of live theatre, but take it a step further into the madness. You will never see the exact same show. Those who are sitting in the first few rows may find themselves questioned or pulled up on stage, and the actors find places to repeat the audience's suggestions up until the very end, so choose carefully.

LET THEM EAT CHAOS may be Second City's sixth visiting production, but it is as fresh, funny and original as you would hope it to be. Buy tickets before it sells out, and prepare to laugh until it hurts. It is worth every moment of your time to share their love of comedy, and the chaos that has come from The Second City for over fifty years.

LET THEM EAT CHAOS runs at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company through August 2nd. For more information, visit the production page.

Pictured in photo from left to right: Travis Turner, Adam Peacock, Holly Laurent, Niccole Thurman, Kevin Sciretta

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