Second City's 101st Revue Let Them Eat Chaos Asks What It Means To Be Human

By Staff in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 10, 2013 8:40PM

By Matt Byrne

Let Them Eat Chaos, Second City's 101st revue, draws inspiration from all sorts of personal relationships. As explained by the warmly sardonic Katie Rich in an early scene, "we're all someone to everyone," a truism that becomes a thesis statement to be revisited throughout the show. The show explores the unusual connections that develop between two seemingly dissimilar parties from across the globe and throughout time. Think Cloud Atlas if it made any sense and was funny.

Granted, humanity's innate desire for personal connection isn't the most incendiary topic to address, especially when compared to the slam-dunk political and cultural commentary of Second City's last few main stage revues. Let Them Eat Chaos' scope is a bit wider, it's point of view a bit blurrier; seemingly disparate scenes featuring a young woman trying to joke with her dimwitted partner, a solo traveler finding camaraderie with a broken hearted performer on a cruise ship (perhaps inspired by a real-life experience had by a cast member? A boat gig is a reliable source of work for fledgling SC performers), and a Scottish soldier seeking solace from his American associate during WWII feel united as a part of a big, tumultuous whole as the show comes to a close.

Let Them Eat Chaos' time and space-spanning approach is enhanced by a series of high quality projected backdrops that were often spectacular while remaining tastefully understated. Outside of experimental set design, the show is fairly straightforward, with a few formal twists found among the wealth of improvised scenes scattered throughout. One of the show's brightest spots comes midway through the second act, when the performers, cast as a kindergarten class, engage in what can best be described as illustrated improv. The premise encourages the cast to fire on their silliest cylinders, many of them visibly breaking in delight at what they'd drawn.

With a fuzzy concept like this one, some mixed signals are inevitable. The first act's final sketch features Edgar Blackmon as a socially conscious rapper trading verses with his technically competent but shortsighted comrade, played by Ross Bryant. Blackmon's outraged rhymes bemoan the injustices faced by many Chicago citizens (failing public schools, rampant violence, racial profiling) while Bryant spits White whine informed by a privileged upper middle class lifestyle, to his colleague's visible dismay. It's an obvious but undeniable point demonstrated with forceful dexterity by all involved. It's hard to not think back to this disparity during a later song about the cloying omnipresence of "cute" things, a trend that might be unavoidable in the lives of the young, city dwelling performers onstage but one that is potentially outside many audience members' sphere of reference. While not every scene needs to be a call for social justice, the "cute" scene could learn something about tunnel vision from the rap battle that preceded it.

The cast is a solid blend of newcomers and main stage mainstays. The reliably charismatic Blackmon stands out alongside Rich as audience favorites, though all six cast members deliver. Bryant, coming off of the wildly underappreciated UP revue One Nation Under 1%, joins former e.t.c. member Tawny Newsome, Holly Laurent, and Steve Waltien to round out the likeable cast. Though not as outwardly provocative as main stage revues from the recent past, Let Them Eat Chaos is an entertaining, personal exploration of what it means to be human.

Let Them Eat Chaos is playing now on Tuesdays thru Sundays at Second City's Mainstage Theater, 1616 N. Wells St. Tickets on sale now.