LOVE AND INFORMATION
Whitireia Performance Centre, 25-27 Vivian Street, Wellington
27/06/2017 - 01/07/2017
Production Details
The Whitireia Stage and Screen Arts programme presents Love and Information a play which is truly of our time. Twenty actors play over 100 characters who grapple with communicating in this complex age of information overload. Churchill explores the impact that Facebook, Twitter and the other myriad communication networks have on our lives.
In a script deliciously written for this age of the splintered attention span, the 57 moments that make up Love and Information hurl audiences through an information bombardment that reflects our lives back to us, caught up in a daily mass consumption of data.
Annie Ruth and Ricky Dey direct a generation of actors who have grown up in this world of information overload. Together they question how we separate ‘fake news’ and ‘alternate facts’ from reality and retain our grip on what is really happening.
In a review of its opening season at the Royal Court in 2012 Michael Billington said ‘one of the many points made by this exhilarating theatrical kaleidoscope is that we live in a world where information bombardment is in danger of leading to atrophy of memory, erosion of privacy and decay of feeling.’ But for this young cast, information overload and human connection go hand in hand.
Whitireia Theatre, 25 Vivian Street, Wellington City
Tuesday 27 June to Saturday 1 July 2017
7.30pm
Tickets are $20 waged, $14 unwaged.
Book at www.thetheatre.co.nz
Cast
Brenna Blank
Luke Burke
Mariarangi Carkeek
Dylan Fa’atui
Emily Fiu
Devon Hancock
Elizabeth Harris
Chris King
Hannah Maison
Mani Mcintyre
Aimee Nicole
Ethan Robson
Ngareta Samuel-Marshall
Alex Siebers
Lucia Blas Tabeira
Aja Thompson
John Ulu Va’a
Kaitlyn Weaver
Crew
Stage Manager – Cole Sharland
Assistant Stage Manager – Zarne Johnson
Production Manager – Shaun Martin
Publicity – Fipe Foai, Rachel Gordon, Calvin Wilkinson, Josh Kenny
Set – Abby Wutzler, Jake Taylor, Huda Demissie, Ryan Mcauley
Props – Unity Brown, Leah Russel
Costume – Yumi Hall, Elisha Payne, Lily Maverick, Carlos Martinez
Front of House – Henry LaHatte, Jatgar Ewart, Jonathan Beresford
Lighting – Jesse James
Sound – Zoe Snowden
Theatre ,
Sheer energy with moments of physical intimacy
Review by Margaret Austin 28th Jun 2017
Judiciously referred to as a ‘script’ rather than a ‘play’ in the programme note, this performance piece, written by Caryl Churchill, consists of a 90-minute kaleidoscopic view of our technological age.
It’s a large scale ambitious project, brought to fruition by directors Annie Ruth and Richard Dey, both teachers at Whitireia. They are to be congratulated for their success.
Performed by eighteen students of the Whitireia Stage and Screen Arts programme, Love and Information takes us through seven self-contained segments: ‘Hidden information revealed’, ‘Memory – accurate and fragmented’, ‘Refusing to know’ being some of them.
We are bombarded with action and informational fragments typical of today’s abbreviated communication. There are delightfully ironic comments. “Think I’ll just get up and go on Facebook,” declares one partner in an intimacy when he can’t sleep. “We’re not paid extra for it to be true,” says one prison warden, referring to his questioning of a prisoner. “You can always cycle down and get a newspaper,” suggests another.
The paranoia that sometimes accompanies this age of such a phenomenon as Facebook is well represented by a man behind a locked door refusing to meet with someone outside who wants “a few words about privacy”. A Londoner goes to Brighton to make a call so that he can’t be traced. And the pathos of medical reticence to provide a diagnosis also offers a telling vignette.
When the coherence provided by a traditional plot is not present, theatrical performance must have something to substitute. In this case, the sheer energy and dedication of the cast – simply dressed and bare footed – who change character and make dozens of exits and entrances, carry the show.
And there are moments of physical intimacy which rescue the performance – and us – from a possibly too intellectual onslaught.
This is an enjoyable, thought-provoking piece of theatre – that is, if we have time to think!
Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer
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