Our FEATS play: CHAOS by Laura Lomas

A girl is locked in a room. A boy brings another boy flowers. A girl has tied herself to a railing. A boy doesn't know who he is. A girl worries about impending catastrophe. A woman jumps in front of a train. A boy's heart falls out his chest. A butterfly has a broken wing.

Laura Lomas's play Chaos is a symphony of dislocated and interconnected scenes. A series of characters search for meaning in a complicated and unstable world. Bouncing through physics, the cosmos, love and violence, they find order in the disorder of each other.

Written specifically for young people, the play formed part of the 2019 National Theatre Connections Festival and was premiered by youth theatres across the UK. It offers opportunities for a large, flexible cast of any size or mix of genders, and can incorporate chorus work, movement and music.

Usually, when we choose a play to take to FEATS (the Festival of European Anglophone Theatrical Societies), we choose something small. A four or five hander without too many complicated moving parts, so that we can focus on bringing the best out of a small group of actors. But we feel that we're currently experiencing something of a golden generation at EYT, so we've decided to be extra ambitious. Our production of Chaos has 17 parts, and is full of complex monologues, lighting effects, and soundscapes, and relies on creating a strong ensemble who work together to bring to stage the discordant, confusing and profoundly chaotic experience of being a teenager. From over 30 auditions from across the youth theatre's 6 Senior groups, we've built a cast that we feel can compete with any adult group at FEATS's very high standard of drama. Follow this space for more information about Chaos: we're planning a pre-FEATS show right here in Brussels, and lots of rehearsal photos and footage as our cast builds the show!