Following a sold-out, multi-award-winning debut at the Edinburgh Fringe, The Chaos That Has Been and Will No Doubt Return is set to embark on a major UK tour from 15 July to 27 November 2025.
Presented by Chalk Line Theatre, this urgent and poetic production is set in austerity-hit Luton and follows two best friends navigating one chaotic night of youth, violence, and survival.
Winner of Best New Writing (Besties Awards – Fest & Skinny Magazine 2024), Best Individual Performance (Olatunji Ayofe, Theatre Weekly), and a finalist for The List Awards 2024, the show has been described by Lyn Gardner as “Steven Berkoff’s East crossed with a grimy, anti-lyrical Under Milkwood.”
Told in real time with biting wit and lyrical intensity, The Chaos That Has Been and Will No Doubt Return explores class, identity, and the rage of a generation forced to fight for freedom.
Writer Sam Edmunds, who grew up in Luton, draws on personal experience and conversations with young people affected by knife violence. He says:
“I wanted to write a play to deal with the enormity and epic-ness of what it means to grow up in an impoverished community surrounded by violence. This play is ultimately a reflection of my upbringing in Luton, but also about the town’s history and people. It wants to celebrate them as well as highlight the realities they live in. I was inspired to write a story which speaks to the restlessness of the working classes who are constantly repressed by our government, how easily young people can be pulled into violence and how we become a product of an environment built to suffocate us. The play tells us that things need to change, and I desperately want them to.”
The production is co-directed by Sam Edmunds and Vikesh Godhwani, with movement direction and intimacy coordination by Jess Tucker Boyd, design by Rob Miles, and sound by Matteo Depares.
The cast includes Olatunji Ayofe, Elan Butler, and Amaia Naima Aguinaga.
Alongside the tour, Chalk Line Theatre will deliver a national impact programme on knife crime intervention, supported by the Ben Kinsella Trust.
The tour includes stops at Bristol Old Vic, Southwark Playhouse Borough, Jumped Up Theatre Peterborough, Mercury Theatre Colchester, Curve Theatre Slough, Exeter Phoenix, Unity Theatre Liverpool, Norwich Playhouse, and Hat Factory Arts Centre Luton.
Listings and ticket information can be found here.
