Earthquake up in here: Amit Shah and Sarah Woodward have different views on a natural disaster. Picture by Stephen Cummiskey
Play: Love and Information
Theatre: The Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
Playwright: Caryl Churchill
Review by Joy Francis
In the age of information overload with one in 10 people allegedly addicted to the internet, 74 year old Caryl Churchill’s latest offering feels right at home.
Sixteen actors skilfully navigate 100 characters through 57 scenes in an intense, occasionally emotional and often funny quick fire production that puts our obsessive relationship with love and information under scrutiny.
Love and Information is like being on more than one rollercoaster ride simultaneously. It thunders through scenes highlighting how our desire to uncover secrets, be known, loved and seen as smart can come at a price – loss. The loss of a lover, mother, intimacy, privacy or one’s mental health.
Filmic in presentation, each section (seven in all) is glowingly numbered on a black “screen” that evaporates to reveal a sparse, white tiled-effect stage. Most scenes have just have two characters, mid-dilemma, in a bathroom, in bed, sitting in a garden or in an office.
The sections begin cryptically. In Secret we see a couple at a bus stop. Are they friends? What is the secret? We are left in the dark, but the man’s reaction suggests it is immense. In Census a father indicates to his son a deep resentment at having to reveal personal information.
Midway through the 145 minute play, we are gradually given more information. In Wedding Video we are faced with two generations of a family discussing the film and half forgotten memories while in Ex, two former lovers share conflicting stories of their relationship.
Churchill has a lot to say, about relationships, about communication, about age and about gender. She questions if we really are communicating with each other and implies that we try and hide behind words. “Meaning” and its elusiveness is a recurrent theme as well as how much competitive word play is an intrinsic part of English culture.
Director James Macdonald deserves a gold medal for his impressive staging and ridiculously rapid (and invisible) scene changes. In Star, two characters are suspended vertically while lying down on a patch of grass, all the while looking directly at us as if we were the sky. The Olympic Committee in Rio should seriously consider securing Macdonald’s services for its 2016 opening ceremony as a contender to Danny Boyle’s crown.
Coming in the wake of the London 2012 Games it is a treat seeing diverse races and ages, and hearing a range of dialects on stage. Multiculturalism is alive and well at the Royal Court. Though not all the scenes hit their mark (the illicit ballroom dancing couple spring to mind) many do. The man and woman shouting their opposing views on an earthquake in a noisy nightclub (sans music) is hilarious, while the guy who tells his female friend that her husband is having an affair doesn’t get the response he is expecting.
It is hard to single out particular actors from such a large cast, but the ever sublime Linda Bassett and Nikki Amuka-Bird stand out. Josh Williams, who is at the beginning of his career, is definitely one to watch.
Despite being a play worth seeing, it is one to be enjoyed in the moment as once it’s over it fails to linger in the mind.
Love and information runs until 13 October 2012.