Love And Information

Love And Information, the latest play from British playwright Caryl Churchill, opens in what seems like the middle of a conversation between two lovers.

“Please, please tell me,” pleads a young man. He is begging a young woman to share her secret. She refuses, but then she gives in. As she mischievously whispers her news into the man’s ear, he looks victorious, but then haunted. “Now what?” he asks, his voice edged with anxiety. “Now what? Now what?”

This exchange may be a minute long. Its characters are unnamed and the secret remains unknown. But for all its brevity, the scene packs a wallop. Who are these people? What has happened? Such questions linger as the stage goes dark and strange sounds blare from speakers. But when the lights switch back on there are suddenly different actors in a baffling new drama. In one sketch a woman bursts out with the news that she is a young boy’s mother, not his sister, as he previously thought. Another scene follows the reunion of a middle-aged man and woman as they reminisce about their youthful love affair, though none of their memories seem to overlap.

This dizzying play has more than 100 characters in nearly 60 scenes. Some are as short as a line of dialogue (“The difficulty of getting the Israelis and Palestinians to…”, spoken between two boozy Elvis impersonators), while others last for minutes. But each one seizes the imagination. And all of them raise subtle questions about how information is revealed or withheld, pursued or misplaced and consider what this does to relationships.