QR Entertainment: Interview with Chaos Theory Theatre
This week has seen the Imagine! Festival of Politics and Ideas 2018 take place in Belfast. I spoke with Chaos Theatre Company about their play 'Eight' which has been performed as part of the festival in Custom House Square. They told told me what it was like to set up a theatre company and provide opportunities for an underrepresented demographic in Northern Irish theatre.
How long has Chaos Theory Theatre been a thing?
We created Chaos Theatre in Summer 2017 for Queen's Drama graduates. So we’re still in our early days but we had our debut show in November which was 'Eight' and it was very well received, and now it's at the Imagine Festival of Politics and Ideas 2018.
How did it come about? What made you decide to start your own business?
Rachel: We had just finished our Drama degrees at Queen’s and we just missed producing shows - that had been a part of our course. We all realised we had different strengths within production so why not put them together to create a theatre company and just have a go? Thankfully we have been able to make plays and we hope its something we’ll be able to do for a very long time.
How many of you are there?
Rachel: There’s four of us – I’m Rachel Coffee, the director.
Was it difficult to set up your own theatre business? What were the challenges?
Rachel: We have experience with the theatre side of things, but because it’s a business that was an element that we had to really look at. We actually went the though the Prince's Trust Northern Ireland and collaborated with them on how to go about creating a business the right way. They really helped us plan out what we foresee for the business in the future.
And you guys have obviously produced plays before because you did it for your course.
Rachel: Yeah, we produced shows in modules at Queen's and really the experience we got from those gave us the skills to do this.
Do you think there’s any plays you studied or produced before that inspired your current work?
Rachel: We actually found that – we ourselves as 20 somethings coming into the world of drama, we weren’t being represented in theatre at Northern Ireland. We decided we would create a survey for 16-30 year olds and I think we got about 300-400 responses over the course of the summer. And the number one thing people were saying in those surveys was that they didn’t feel like they had a choice - socially, politically or in theatre. We decided that we were going to give those people more of a choice.
So I picked 'Eight' which basically has eight characters and represents different snapshots of a generation – you have a character that representations LGBTQ+ themes, mental health – particularly men’s mental health that isn’t talked about enough in NI, abuse and abuse of power, social status, etc.
The whole point of the play is that not everyone performs. The audience are presented with eight people and they have to choose who they don’t want to see perform. And it brings in this whole commercial aesthetic of first impressions where in Northern Ireland you could walk past someone on the street and maybe based on their appearance you might not give them the time of day or you misjudge people. And it's just really that there are people in Northern Ireland who are treated as second class citizens based on things like their socio-economic background, gender issues, or sexuality.
They say its seven seconds for a first impression. So you're just presented with eight characters, you aren’t told who they are or what their story is. So it's purely about what you think that character is about based on the way they look, and then depending on who performs you can say “Oh was I right about that person? Did I misjudge them? Would I really match that story to that person?” because you never really know whats happening in someone's personal life.
And the people that don’t perform – you never get to see what their story is about. Different actors perform each time it is staged. Each night there are eight characters and only six will perform, and the audience have to actually choose. Each character has a buzzer and a tally counter, and you press the counter of the person you don’t want to see perform.
That must be so gutting when you’ve rehearsed and then don’t get to perform.
Emily: I play the character of Mona in the production. You put in so much work with such amazing people and you get so connected with this character on a stage in front of an audience and not know whether you’re gonna go up or not. And in the first run we did I thankfully got to perform which was nice, but then I didn’t the last night. And its like the worst feeling, like .. you didn’t wanna hear me? Why didn’t you pick me?
But then it's interesting that other times people do pick you.
Yeah, and its nice as well because then it helps you realise what it feels like to be judged by your appearance rather than just being passive to that whole situation.
Tell me a bit about your upcoming play and the Imagine! Belfast Festival of Ideas and Politics 2018.
Rachel: The Imagine Festival of Politics and Ideas 2018 is in its fourth year, and its just been going from strength to strength. There's 80 events, and we’re one of them - t's our first time performing in the festival. The festival director is very motivated to explore the types of issues that our play examines. We're really focused on the political situation in Northern Ireland – I mean we haven’t had a government for a long time. And its all about the socio-political and economic landscapes of the country, and these are key issues that are really fun to interact with.
We performed the play in the Brian Friel last year, which was a great opportunity to perform on-campus at Queen’s so its nice to now be able to take it somewhere else to an Accidental Theatre space which is a more personal space.
Why should students get involved?
Students should get involved because it represents them, it represents the age group of the majority of students here at Queen’s. It’s a population that you don’t typically see in plays in Northern Ireland - you don’t really see the issues and struggles and the things that people our age want. There's a lot of uncertainty about our future, and the special thing about this play is that it was written 10 years ago, but with how slow Northern Ireland is moving [socially and politically] you would think it was written today. There’s no marriage equality, our suicide rate is 25% higher than in the rest of Europe, there’s critical issues around Brexit, and this play really homes in on all of those things.
Where is the play being performed, and when?
Accidental Theatre in Shaftesbury Square, 13-15 March at 7.30pm.
And if people want to get in touch with you how can they do that?
We have Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. We're @chaostheorytheatre on Facebook and Instagram, and @chaostheory on Twitter. Tickets are £8 so they’re very affordable for students, and they can be bought at the Imagine Belfast website. It's just a booking online.
Is there anything you maybe want to say to Drama graduates? Because obviously you guys have done so well just to come straight out of a degree and to do this and get so involved. And probably a lot of other Drama grads are gonna come out of university thinking “oh my god I wish I could do that too”, so what would you say to them?
Rachel: I think at the start it’s a very daunting idea to have and it can be hard at times, bur I think when you.. I think if you have the drive and passion to do it then just go for it. There are opportunities in Northern Ireland and there are places here that can help. I would encourage people to go for the Prince’s Trust, they run a 5 day business course once a month, and I learned more about business in those 5 days than I did in 5 years at school! And if the opportunity isn’t there just give it to yourself, because no one can stop you.
Emily: I’m a second year drama student with Queen’s, and surprisingly there aren’t a lot of people who do actually want to go into acting on my course. If you do want to be an actor, you literally just have to go for it. If you don’t audition and give it a go you’re not gonna get the opportunities, and the opportunities are there.
I think that’s one of the greatest things about Chaos, they’re a bunch of people who aren’t already established as professionals who give every single person who auditions a chance.
Catch Chaos Theatre Company in their final performance at the Imagine Festival on Thursday 15 March in Custom House Square at 7.30pm. Good luck, guys!
By James Lavery