LOVE AND INFORMATION (Silk Street Theatre/Guildhall School of Music and Drama)***

 

By Dave

Link: https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/summer_2021/love_and_information 

Available until: Livestreams on Saturday 1^st May at 7.30pm.

Love and Information seemed like a bit of an odd title when I first heard about it but after watching the show, I think it not only describes the show perfectly, it’s a pretty good description of life too.

Of course life isn’t just about love and information but it does play a much bigger role than I realised. We go through life sharing information with other people. Sometimes they want the information, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes you tell them too little and sometimes you tell them too much. Sometimes they understand what you’re saying and sometimes they don’t. We give the information in whatever way seems like the right way and the reaction we get very often does depend on love, whether that’s how much they love us or how much they love whoever or whatever we’re talking about.

Love and Information doesn’t really have a plot. It’s a whole succession of short scenes, all with different characters. There are over 100 characters altogether and they’re all played by nine cast members, who in this case are all students at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Unlike most of the Guildhall plays, this one is presented as a livestream.

It’s a great challenge for an actor as they have so many different characters to play. So many different stories to tell. Unlike in most plays, there’s no time for character development, you have to grab your audience instantly and make them care because if you can’t, it’ll be too late. I won’t go through all the stories because I can’t remember them all but they cover an incredible range of subjects.

There is romance, crime, drama and philosophy. There are sad scenes, like the patient who has been given bad news by their doctor, and worrying scenes, like a baby who might be unwell and the parents’ differing reactions. There are scenes involving apparently random conversations, like one about light years and a PA taking dictation. There are situations that seem completely crazy, like the elephant on the stairs. There are challenging concepts, like how to explain pain to someone who doesn’t understand what it is.

Rosa Maggiora has designed a very interesting set. Some of the stage is clear, some is taken up with an arrangement of doorways. Director Pooja Ghai uses the doorways in different ways, both as actual doorways when needed (for example when two characters hide in a house while another is outside) and as a way of dividing the stage into different sized sections. If a scene seems to require a small space, it can be put in a small space. Diane Alison-Mitchell’s movement direction allows them to use the space in varied ways.

The use of props is also very clever – Pooja gives us exactly what is needed and no more. The PA taking dictation has a computer keyboard which is enough to show what she’s doing but there’s no need for a desk and a monitor which would be difficult to take on and offstage. We can assume the desk and monitor is there, we don’t need to see them. I also really like the way the piano is created in one of the scenes.

The actors do incredibly well, moving quickly from one scene to another and quickly setting the scenes and establishing the characters and making us care about them. I don’t know exactly when the different plays were filmed but many of the actors in Love and Information were seen in other Guildhall plays very recently. If they are learning a lot of plays in quick succession and performing them to this kind of standard, that is seriously impressive. If some were filmed earlier, it is still very impressive. They have been given some very challenging plays which I’m sure a lot of professionals would struggle with but the standard of the acting is consistently very high.

The issues I have with this play come completely from the writing. Caryl Churchill is a great writer, no question. I didn’t know that before lockdown but having seen a number of her plays in the last year, I know it now. But Love and Information has… well, too much information. Not in the colloquial sense but the literal one. I really enjoyed the first half of the play. It was exciting seeing new scenes and new characters but after a while, it was like my brain couldn’t take anymore. Maybe I’m just getting old but after a while my brain couldn’t cope with resetting at the start of every new scene and getting to know a new situation with a new group of characters. Maybe longer scenes or returns to previous characters and situations would have worked better for me but I’m sure it is me, not the students. They are brilliant.

Most of the play was livestreamed from a distance and the characters were dressed in very similar clothes. This made it very difficult for me to know which actors were onstage at any one time and this means it’s not possible to write a proper review where I pick out individual characters and performances. I have seen most, if not all the ensemble before in other plays. I thought I recognised some faces and voices and I definitely recognised some of the names in the programme but it has not been possible to put names to faces.

Luckily there wasn’t a bad performance in the whole show so I can say truthfully that Aoife Gaston, Caitlin Ffion Griffiths, Lily Hardy, Genevieve Lewis, Conor McLeod, Umi Myers, Felix Newman, Sonny Pilgrem, Sam Thorpe-Spinks and Dolly Webb were all excellent in numerous challenging and varied roles. But it does feel a bit of a cheat writing that. I wish I could have picked out individual performances from each of them.

This is a very interesting play with some great performances and don’t let anything I’ve said about the play put you off. It’s just one person’s opinion and we all get things wrong sometimes.