Three performers and twenty five sketches, presented in a random order each night. In an ideal world Dreamgun would like to perform every variation of the show but, as they explain before the show commences by means of a complex equation, there are at least fifteen septillion variations and it would take quite some time. Having asked members of the audience to shuffle the cards, titled and illustrated with the names of their sketches, to ensure they won’t cheat in the order they perform them in, the night’s series of twenty five sketches begins.
It’s a brilliant concept, hilarious and well executed.
The trio are dressed in 1984-esque boiler suits – Hannah even has a red belt around her waist as Julia does in the novel – and this adds to the otherworldly feel both of the sketches’ titles, ranging from The Old Man and the CD to Robots to The Other Half, and their quirky content. However, these simple costumes are elaborated upon with the use of various props and set pieces, a particular highlight being a cardboard robot suit, which adds to the humour of the sketches. Video is also heavily involved and used to good effect, such as in the sketch Trailer and even, rather unexpectedly, in one entitled Cows. This show was not simply reliant on props and use of media to make the sketches work, however; the script was clever, with some excellent twists in the tail along the way, as well as some instances where the performers simply let the strangeness of the scenario speak for itself - the caveman whose artistic integrity is challenged springs to mind, although a particular highlight was the noir parody Detective Man.
Some of the sketches were better than others, as is to be expected, but all were performed with great enthusiasm and skill by the cast; although they had no idea which sketch would come next, this never threw them off. The three worked well as a team, particularly in the Wine Reception sketch where they share a ridiculous, overblown speech, and in the Babysitter Detectives sketch; Hannah and Niall do not need to speak, their expressions say it all.
The group have eighteen shows left, rather than fifteen septillion, and so the chance to see Chaos Theory is far more limited than it otherwise would be. It’s a brilliant concept, hilarious and well executed, so I would recommend that you go; the crazy concept alone is worth the price of a ticket.
