OBSERVER: Love and Information
Acclaimed British playwright Caryl Churchill has a season of her play Love and Information currently being performed at Theatre Works in St Kilda.
It is a challenging work due to its unique structure, and while at times arresting and entertaining, it equally confuses and overreaches in its ambition.
The action of the play is difficult to describe due to its non-naturalistic impressionistic quality; there is no classic narrative here.
Instead, through the presentation of more than 50 scenes, some shorter than a minute, life in the21st century is portrayed.
Taken as a whole the scenes show the fragility of human communication in an age fractured and fragmented by social media technologies.
First performed in 2012, Love and Information has an intriguing script. It consists of seven sections with each section consisting of short scenes involving over 100 characters.
To complicate matters, while the seven sections have to be performed in a specific order the scenes that make up each section can be performed in any order.
No characters are named and more than one actor can play the same character.
In this production eight actors perform the over one hundred characters required. All do so with admirable energy and dedication.
Nevertheless, there is a great deal of unevenness in the quality of the performances; some actors are able to meet the demands of this challenging script, while others flounder at times.
Given the flexibility in staging afforded by the script, the role of director is critical. Here Belle Hansen’s work mirrors that of the actors in its uneven quality.
Successfully using music and multimedia projections to enhance the action these enhancements come at the cost of better performances.
Overall then Love and Information is not an easy play to sit through as it confounds audience expectations and deconstructs the classic well-made play.
However, its ambition is commendable and this production, for all its faults, is worth seeing.
Venue: Theatre Works, 14 Acland St, St Kilda
Dates and times: Until June 14 at 7.30pm
Duration: 95 minutes
Tickets: $25-55
For further information and bookings: www.theatreworks.org.au
Review by Peter Murphy
Pictured: Charlie Morris and Felix Star in Love and Information.
Photo: Steven Mitchell Wright