The Second City’s Let Them Eat Chaos. Left to right: Travis Turner, Adam Peacock, Kevin Sciretta, Holly Laurent, Niccole Thurman
By DCist Contributor Anya van Wagtendonk
At first blush, “chaotic” seems like it’d be an appropriate description for a comedic variety show that blends scripted sketches with improvisation, peppers its interludes with political commentary, and sets it all to a live soundtrack (orchestrated by one guy and a laptop). You’d expect quite a bit of chaos to erupt when five performers attempt to play about 85 different characters (by this writer’s rough estimation) of varying ages, races, sexual orientations and ability statuses, and to include the audience, and to sing, and to dance—all in under two hours.
But Let Them Eat Chaos turns out to be a mistitle for the visiting production that The Second City, the acclaimed Chicago-based comedy troupe, performs in residency at the Woolly Mammoth Theater Company through August 9th. All of the elements of a potential theatrical disaster are there — you’ve been to your friends’ improv shows, you know what they’re like — but with a cast this in-sync with one another, any chaos is perfectly controlled.
That’s not actually such a surprise, given The Second City’s reputation. It’s the training ground where your favorite funny people cut their teeth—Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Chris Farley, Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, and Steve Carell are among its most illustrious alumni. Second City is known for a particular brand of silly-meets-smart (all of the original Ghostbusters trained there), and that style is on full display in Chaos.
Sketches range from a sendup of the Secret Service to a lovers’ quarrel between mulleted lady-hillbillies. There’s a recurring bit about two daydreaming cowboys, an actually-ironic ironic rap battle, and a musical history of the shady back dealing that led to the Panama Canal’s construction. (Funny how jokes about American overseas meddling always feels topical.)
The audience gets roped in a few times for just a smattering of potential chaos, though they are, thankfully, never given too much opportunity to stray. This is in part because of how the show is built: audience interaction is incorporated into longer, tightly-structured pieces, so there’s not really room for Alfred from Manassas to try and be a star. But more importantly, it’s because the ensemble are so in tune with one another that they never let things get off track.
The five performers, Holly Laurent, Adam Peacock, Kevin Sciretta, Niccole Thurman, and Travis Turner, are each talented performers in their own right. Most are singers; Turner is an incredible physical presence, and Thurman’s got a face so expressive she could have done vaudeville. They all demonstrate impressive ranges, switching between radically diverse characters with ease.
But their chemistry as a group is what keeps the show moving. This strong ensemble dynamic sustains silence as well as it bolsters jokes, so Second City can go to places other comedy groups wouldn’t dare.
In the case of Chaos that means talking about racism. It means getting the audience to laugh at a scene of police brutality—then questioning, earnestly, why we laughed. It also means giving voice to characters from underrepresented populations, such as the deaf teenager played by Peacock.
There’s a delicate line to walk when addressing social issues in a comedy show if you want to avoid being too preachy, or too self-satisfied. Second City nails it almost every time, by transitioning back and forth from serious to absurd, keeping the audience on its toes.
Chaos doesn’t forget that its ultimate purpose is to delight. And they’re not just delighting the audience—they’re delighting themselves. The cowboy bit devolves (evolves?) into a competition between the two actors to make the other laugh.
The night that I was there was a “50 PERCENT MORE CHAOS” evening—a night with a special third act of only improvisation, a post-show meet and greet, and a party— and the performers used the opportunity to riff on each other, taking audience suggestions they thought might crack their colleagues up.
As unrelated as the sketches seem at first, certain common threads emerge as Chaos goes on. Characters reappear in new sketches, at different ages and stages in their lives. A wordless pantomime of someone too attached to their cell phone made a later sketch about modern dating ring a bit sharper. The final sketch, a dialogue, rotated the same words through characters we’d met throughout the night. It was, frankly, a weird choice—maybe the weak point of the entire show. But it was also a reminder that, out of chaos, comes order. In a show concerned with the politics of laughter, that’s a hopeful message.
Let Them Eat Chaoshas an extended run at Woolly Mammoth through August 9. Remaining “50% MORE CHAOS” nights are Friday July 31 and Friday, August 7. Tickets are available online.
