Featured
Fragmented reality: West End Productions stages vignette-filled 'Love and Information' at North Fourth Art Center
The cast of 鈥淟ove and Information鈥� staged by West End Productions includes, from left to right, standing, Yannig Moran, Margie Maes and Dan Ware; on the sofa, Patricia Thompson, Aodn Luthazar, Fawn Hanson and Parker Owen; and Colleen Neary McClure on the floor.
Published
Modified
Humans want to know, they need to know, they have to know.
These sentences have likely driven every person who walked this planet.
Caryl Churchill鈥檚 鈥淟ove and Information鈥� features 100 characters trying to make sense of what they know. The West End production opens on Thursday, Nov. 9, at the North Fourth Art Center. The play runs Thursday-Sunday through Nov. 19.
Churchill structured her piece as a series of more than 50 fragmented scenes, some no longer than 25 seconds, all of which are apparently unrelated, but which accumulate into a startling mosaic.
Splintered attention spans rule. Someone can鈥檛 get a signal. Another won鈥檛 answer the door. Someone put an elephant on the stairs.
鈥淭his is the strangest play I鈥檝e ever been in or directed,鈥� said Joe Feldman, director. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no plot. There鈥檚 about 50 vignettes.鈥�
The dialogue ranges from four lines to several pages. The vignettes explore the ways we long for, process and reject knowledge.
鈥淭he characters are not named,鈥� Feldman said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no location. All the characters appear once only.鈥�
The short scenes range from a family gathered to watch home videos to friends debating the existence of God.
The first catches a man and a woman mid-conversation. She has a secret; he wants to hear it; she鈥檚 indecisive, but finally whispers it to him. The audience can鈥檛 hear it.
鈥淪he鈥檚 created these vignettes with the precision of a surgeon,鈥� Feldman said.
There鈥檚 a man talking to a female friend about his love for a virtual voice.
鈥淪he says, 鈥業t鈥檚 not real鈥�,鈥� Feldman said. 鈥� 鈥楤ut what about the sex?鈥� He says, 鈥業t鈥檚 great鈥�.鈥�
Some sketches take a darker tone.
Two women taking a course on memory improvement are told to link the memory to a room in their house.
鈥淭he whole scene shifts into a very horrifying thing,鈥� Feldman said.
The director says he took on the challenge because the script terrified him.
鈥淚t鈥檚 almost more like a poem than a play,鈥� he said of its random nature.
鈥淢y speculation is she did this not so much to confuse the audience, but to keep them off-balance,鈥� Feldman added. 鈥淓ither people are going to enjoy it or they鈥檙e going to be so gobsmacked they鈥檙e not going to care for it.鈥�
Churchill is a playwright known for dramatizing the abuses of power, for her use of non-naturalistic techniques, and for her exploration of sexual politics and feminist themes. Originally produced at the Royal Court Theater in London in 2012, 鈥淟ove and Information鈥� moved to the New York Theater Workshop in 2014.
