Before the Harvard Undergraduate Association (HUA), the Harvard Undergraduate Council, known as the “UC,” governed all student affairs until its abrupt abolishment by a student referendum in 2022. Stories of the events that resulted in the UC’s demise have become part of the lore incoming students learn upon being admitted to Harvard. Even so, the full story of the UC may remain foreign to both current students and alumni who were not physically present for the drama’s unfolding. One student playwright, Chinyere “CJ” Obasi ’24, and co-director Texaco Texeira-Ramos ’26 seek to answer the question of whether members of the Harvard community should care about the collapse of the UC and how it reflects the influence Harvard has on all of us in the upcoming play, Under Control / Utter Chaos.
Obasi made his debut in Harvard theater as a writer for the 2021 Froshical, The Fortunates. He has since worked as a director among other roles, and, now a senior, is co-directing his own creation. Under Control / Utter Chaos is his way of fulfilling a promise he made as a first-year to his graduating class to write a play for them. Obasi recalled how telling the UC’s story as a play “started out as a joke,” during his sophomore year while he was working on adapting and directing Shakespeare’s King John. While at a party, a friend inquired about what Obasi would write next. At the time, UC was beginning to reach its demise, so Obasi jokingly remarked, “Maybe a UC play?” His friend then tweeted about it, encouraging Obasi to make his comment into a reality.
What started as a 50-minute short sketch play of the last UC meeting evolved into a unique three-act production that shows what, as Obasi said, happens when you “put the brightest people in a room for four years, let them cook, and watch the fireworks.” In the tradition of William Shakespeare, Obasi chose to give his play two names to fully encompass the ordered and chaotic nature of both the UC and organizing a theater production.
Texeira-Ramos has become a familiar face in the world of Harvard theater as a participant and later film proctor in the First-Year Arts Program (FAP), an actor in In the Heights, a crew member for Something Rotten, a performer in Footloose, and a producer for the Great Comet. For them, art has always been a “means of connecting with communities.” Under Control / Utter Chaos specifically represents “something so real and tangible to the Harvard community.” Almost immediately after being accepted to Harvard, they were forced to reckon with the imperfections and complications of the University after learning about the dramatic end of the former student government. Working on Under Control / Utter Chaos has allowed them to grapple with the question, “How does Harvard shape you as an individual? How does Harvard manipulate you as an individual? And what do you become as a member of the institution known as Harvard?”
Students who watch the play will likely admire the clever renaming of well-known student publications as they quickly decipher the true identities of The Daily, The Political, The Conservative, and The Alternative as well as the new name for Harvard—“The College” or “The Institution.” For characters, name changes from real people allow for greater creativity in storytelling while shifting the focus away from critiquing the individuals to examining pertinent ideas, behaviors, and morals on campus.
This also allows for the script of the play to be incredibly flexible. Depending on when you go to see the play you may hear actors say different lines, making their own unique contributions to the plot. Actors also transform from playing characters into playing themselves for one scene. While practicing this part, cast members were initially surprised by how other people perceived them during rehearsals. Audience members could imagine how former UC members watching this play and recognizing themselves might be in disbelief at how their actions and words were remembered by their peers.
The play should not be confused as an attack on any particular UC member. The humanity of the characters is respected, and there are no clear heroes or villains. Watching Under Control / Utter Chaos should serve as a space for everyone who has ever been affiliated with Harvard to reexamine concerns about how, as Texeira-Ramos said, “Harvard treats its students, how Harvard students treat each other, and how Harvard alumni enter the world.”
Key moments in the play highlight the issues of race, elitism, journalism, identity, and the body among Harvard students. While writing Under Control / Utter Chaos, Obasi underwent many intensive hours of research by interviewing people who played a significant role in the UC and its ending. No UC story would be complete without addressing the man credited for leading the call to abolish the UC—Michael Cheng ’22. Obasi’s final interview was with the former UC president, where they discussed how the play would depict an incident when racist slurs were posted on Cheng’s door in the midst of his campaign to abolish the UC.
Also as a journalist for the Harvard Political Review, Obasi uses Under Control / Utter Chaos to explore how student journalists can develop unhealthy obsessions with the subjects they cover and the overwhelming layers of elitism in Harvard campus culture that harms both those from elite and more humble backgrounds. How students wish to express their personal identity may often clash with how they believe Harvard expects them to behave. Obasi grew up “reading a lot of plays by Sarah Kane and Caryl Churchill and other primarily white female playwrights who incorporated the body [as] an important part of the narrative,” which inspired him to write about physical, visceral ailments that have manifested in students in the play who have been harmed by the institution and their peers. This works to enhance the drama of the play’s story and shine a light on how “the stress Harvard causes you impacts your body.”
After the play, students may wonder if there will ever be a student-run production about the complaints students have about the HUA. Some of these complaints are similar to the ones people had about the UC, like the overly competitive and ambitious personalities it attracts. There are also new complaints about insufficient funding for clubs without strong alumni bases and the end of free summer storage in Houses. When that play comes out, it will be another opportunity for Harvard affiliates to reflect on how the University has shaped them and how they have changed each other’s experiences.
Under Control / Utter Chaos goes up in the Loeb Ex Theater at the Loeb Drama Center from Thursday, November 30th to Sunday, December 3rd. Tickets are free—look out for emails and posters around campus.
Adedoyin Adebayo ’26 (aadebayo@college.harvard.edu) has tickets to see Under Control / Utter Chaos on Friday, December 1st.