Chaos

'If the world is chaos, then it means there's no order, and if there's no order, then it basically means that anything is possible' 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.

Laura Lomas is from Derby. Her plays include The Blue Road (youth companies at Dundee Rep/Derby Theatre/Royal & Derngate/Theatre Royal Plymouth, 2017); Joanne (Clean Break/Soho Theatre, 2015); Bird (Derby Live/Nottingham Playhouse/UK tour, 2014); Blister (Paines Plough/RWCMD/Gate Theatre, 2014); Open Heart Surgery (Theatre Uncut/Southwark Playhouse/Traverse Theatre/Soho Theatre); The Island (Nottingham Playhouse/Det Norske Oslo, 2009) and Wasteland (New Perspectives Theatre/Derby Live, 2009). Radio plays include Fragments (Afternoon Drama, BBC Radio 4), My Boy (Somethin' Else Productions/BBC Radio 4), which won Best Drama Bronze at the Sony Radio Academy Awards 2013, and Lucy Island (BBC Radio 3, The Wire). Screen credits include Hanna (Amazon), Glue (E4) and Rough Skin for Coming Up (Channel 4/Touchpaper), which was nominated for Best British Short at the BIFAs and Best UK Short at Raindance Film Festival.