‘Under Control/Utter Chaos’ Review: ‘Wait, Is This Play About Us?’

On March 31, 2022, Harvard students voted to dissolve the Undergraduate Council, which had served as the College’s student government for 40 years, after months of campaign controversy and collegiate chaos. Now almost two years since the turbulent event, the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club’s “Under Control/Utter Chaos” took the stage at the Loeb Ex Theater from Nov. 30 through Dec. 3, offering the uninitiated a fictionalized account of 2022’s UC drama.

Written by Chinyere S.C. “C.J.” Obasi ’24, and co-directed by Obasi and Texaco U.M. Texeira-Ramos ’26, “Under Control/Utter Chaos” is a three-act play that follows a group of students at an unnamed university (simply called “the College”) who find themselves involved in a rapidly unfolding scandal: the election to elect the new president of — and later, abolish — the UC. The play is a satire so wildly out there that it’s hard to believe it exists. And yet, the show that “started out as a joke” is a hilarious, introspective, and ultimately touching work that speaks to the Harvard experience on a deeply relatable level.

All 14 members of the play’s ensemble cast gave remarkable performances, each giving their character a depth that made even the satirical sympathetic. Kai C.W. Lewis ’27 stood out as Richard Lee, the underdog candidate who runs his campaign on the promise to dissolve the UC. Lewis’s empathetic performance of the UC’s final president is that of a seasoned actor. Also exceptional were Caron S. Kim ’24, who played the show’s grandiose Narrator, and Julia K. Grullon ’24, who skillfully portrayed the dual (and wildly different) roles of Anna and Helen.

Obasi’s script and the performances that elevate it are utterly superb. The show is riotously funny when irreverence is called for, and sober when it needs to be. Multiple scenes run side by side, with characters’ dialogue matching up as they speak shared sentences with significant relevance to the plot. This clever technique of overlapping dialogue draws clear parallels between characters and scenes, expertly emphasizing how even though the UC scandal drew those involved into a tangled web of dorm-room conversations, social media schemes, and mistrust, they might not have been so different as they may have thought.

The play also leans into the fact that much of its audience is made up of Harvard students who are already familiar with the story of the UC’s downfall. Moments of recognition and jabs at university administration evoke laughs and cheers. Campus publications and Houses are given fictional names — The Crimson is “The Daily,” The Independent is “The Alternative,” and so on. “Under Control/Utter Chaos” is a play for Harvard students and by Harvard students, which allows the show to display an intimate understanding of its student audience, cast, and creative team.

The production design of “Under Control/Utter Chaos” works well to set the tone of each scene. The show’s intricate lighting, designed by Dora Ivkovich ’24, makes extensive use of spotlights to visually highlight characters’ moments of loneliness or panic. The scenic design by Cam Parsons Muniz ’25 is also effective, using a minimalist set to cleverly place scenes in dorm rooms, a tennis court, and even a mock courthouse.

More than a few audience members walking into the Loeb Experimental Theater to see “Under Control/Utter Chaos” have likely questioned the ethics of putting on such a play. The show knows this, and it takes the moral gray areas of its existence in stride. The play’s second act ventures into meta-commentary on satire, including multiple scenes in which Richard confronts the Narrator about her — or, the playwright’s — motivations for telling this story. She never gives a straight answer. “Under Control/Utter Chaos” is a quietly uncomfortable story to watch — and, as Richard points out, to act out — which proves its artistic brilliance. What begins as a comedic take on an infamous piece of Harvard history evolves into a meditation on the moral responsibilities of theatre itself.

The third act takes these gestures at self-reference and runs with them, driving the show to a resounding finish. Actors shed their previous roles to step into entirely new ones, the fourth wall is broken multiple times, and the audience is never quite sure what they’re watching until the lights dim for the last time. It’s a bold, successful final twist in a play whose ending is believed by the audience to be already known.

“Under Control/Utter Chaos” is a triumph. It’s a thought-provoking satire that forces the audience to sit with uncomfortable feelings. It masters the tricky balance of portraying the pointless intensity of student government drama alongside serious topics such as racism and hate speech. And ultimately, it’s a tribute to the Harvard experience — in the strangest way possible.

—Staff writer Samantha H. Chung can be reached at samantha.chung@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @samhchung.