Love and Information – Location, Tickets, Reviews
A cast of fifteen performs a seemingly endless string of short vignettes in Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information. It’s an evening of playlets that circles the idea of “information” – what it is, how it’s used, and how it defines every kind of human relationship.
Straight from its well-received run at London’s Royal Court Theatre, Love and Information presents a challenging evening with one of the world’s best form-bending dramatists, rich with Churchill’s unconventional perspectives on how information – and love – can be the most desirable and least reliable of ideas.
Maxamoo
Speaking of ideas, how about this one – 57 unrelated scenes over the course of two hours featuring Churchill’s uninterrupted steam of consciousness. It sounds like a lot to take in, and that’s kind of the point. With Love and Information, Churchill reminds us why she is considered to be one of the most daring playwrights currently working.
Most of the vignettes are powerful, funny, or interesting. Each suggests larger, deeper stories beneath the quick offering. The scenes’ subject matters run the gambit, for example, a couple at home bickers about who said what, two women on a plane debate the intelligence failures leading up to the Iraq War, and a girl tries to explain the concept of pain to a boy with a faulty nervous system. From each of these, Churchill extracts ideas about how: information connects and divides us; we use knowledge to dominate, confuse, entwine, heal, and destroy each other; sometimes ignorance is bliss and sometimes it’s not; and the things we know are full of meaning, and simultaneously meaningless.
The scenes range from conventional to downright bizarre, yet, Churchill’s masterful storytelling adds them up to a coherent whole. We admit that the running time will test your patience, but if you take a chance on Love and Information, it’s hard not to admire this sweet, challenging, fun and strange show. Too much information? We think not.
Public Opinion
The performance we saw strained the attention of some audience members – we caught some folks nodding off, but to be far, fifty-seven plays in two hours isn’t everyone’s idea of a great night at the theater. Here are some musings from Twitter, where chatter has been positive:
@FeldmanAdam: “Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information (@NYTW79) is the best thing I’ve seen so far this year. Deeply smart and funny and beautifully acted.”
@smheathcote: “@NYTW79‘s LOVE AND INFORMATION. Churchill’s incredible writing combined with immense design work that you can only experience in a theatre.”
Have you seen Love and Information? What did you think? Comment below or tweet to us at @Maxamoo.
Critics’ Reviews
New York Times
57 Bits of Emotional Knowledge
New York Post
‘Love and Information’ takes an atomized look at modern relationships
Time Out New York
Churchill—that magnificent manipulator of form and content, one of our most challenging dramatists—makes forging connections an intellectual delight.
Huffington Post
All You Need Is Love… and Information: Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information
TheaterMania
New York Theatre Workshop presents Caryl Churchill’s latest work, a series of nearly 60 playlets with 100 characters performed by 15 actors.
New York Theater
Caryl Churchill’s 10-second Play Festival
Theater Pizzazz
Too Much of It!
TICKETS
Starting at $65-$85 (click here to purchase)
DATES
Performances through April 6, 2014
LOCATION
Minetta Lane Theatre
18-22 Minetta Lane
New York City
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RUNNING TIME
1 hour and 45 minutes, no intermission
CAST & CREW
(partial list)
Written by Caryl Churchill
Directed by James MacDonald
Featuring Phillip James Brannon, Randy Danson, Susannah Flood, Noah Galvin, Jennifer Ikeda, Karen Kandel, Irene Sofia Lucio, Nate Miller, Killie Overbey, Adante Power, John Procaccino, Lucas Caleb Rooney, Maria Tucci, James Waterston, & Zoe Winters