LOVE & INFORMATION - CONTEXT

DECIPHER THE CODE OF ROMANCE

LOVE & INFORMATION

TEASER POSTER

THIS SUMMER

The play was written in 2012 by playwright Caryl Churchill. It was first opened in the same year at Royal Court Jerwood Theatre. It's Caryl Churchill's 45th play. Caryl Churchill was born 3rd September 1938 (age 80). She is best known for dramatising the abuses of power, for her use of non-naturalistic techniques, and for her exploration of sexual politics and feminist themes. She was born here (London, England). 

It's basically a kaleidoscopic play of short scenes addressing contemporary issues about knowledge, technology and communication, and our capacity for sexual love.

There are 58 scenes in the play and it's divided into seven sections. In each scene and in each section themselves, they always have a theme. All the scenes are depressing but funny, weird and freaky at the same time. Love & Information is a psychological romantic dramedy. There are 58 scenes and each of which somehow combines information (knowledge, secrets, data, memories, facts, truths) with love (relationships, feelings, parents and children, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, friends, lovers, colleagues, enemies).

The play is divided into seven sections and each have a theme, loosely. Section I appears to be about getting information. Section II and its scenes are mainly about information that people don’t want. Section III is about misinformation. Section IV is definitely all about memory. Section V and its bits of information trouble people. In Section VI, we’re looking at how information makes us feel. Finally, in Section VII, there seems to be a curious disconnect between the information and what people are getting from it.

Her early work developed Bertolt Brecht's modernist dramatic and theatrical techniques of Epic theatre to explore issues of gender and sexuality. She began to to experiment with forms of dance-theatre, incorporating techniques developed from the performance tradition initiated by Antonin Artaud with his 'Theatre of Cruelty'. This move away from a clear Fabel dramaturgy towards increasingly fragmented and surrealistic narratives characterises her work as post-modernist.

The most talked about component of this unique piece was the seemingly confusing structure and form that defied all of the things we have come to expect and want from a play when we go to the theatre. Churchill’s plays can be described as "anti-plays" as they defy traditional conventions of theatre in terms of narrative structure and character. Obviously, even if it defies the traditional dramatic techniques of making a play. It's still a play. Churchill is a feminist playwright and that is shown in a little but very powerful female monologue in Love & Information called The Child Who Didn't Know Fear