Love and Information certainly does what it says on the box. We’re presented with a myriad of short scenes and peculiar vignettes, theatrical fragments that feature over 100 characters.
Story-wise there’s no through-line, but as the lack of any narrative persists and the play’s themes impress themselves upon you, you begin to understand that the noise is kind of the point.
What’s admirable about Caryl Churchill’s script is how much of this noise is built into the structure of the play itself, each unrelated scrap of a scene placed disjointedly against the next. What’s more admirable about this production is how much of the noise on paper is realised in its design and presentation by director, Belle Hansen.
Every broad stroke of performance is layered by smaller gestures, each scene given some added complexity or curiosity. And then an actor waddles out as a Tyrannosaurus Rex – not part of the scene currently playing out, but just to apparently drop some of the costume on the floor that he will return (as himself) to put on a few scenes from now.
A gorgeous accompanying sound design by Jack Burmeister helps keep these seemingly disparate pieces at times from losing cohesion (and the audience’s attention). It’s woven splendidly with Sidney Younger’s lighting design, with both implemented well with the mixed media played, sung, and projected throughout.
The stage is framed by a beautiful, almost-oversized, proscenium and when the curtains pull back we’re presented with… another? Within the stage lies another stage, raised and smaller, where characters emerge (and often revolve) reminiscent of figurines on a cuckoo clock.
Indeed there is something of being locked into patterns of behaviour that comes through in some of the scenes. The love we find and the connections we make – that we yearn for, that we lament, that we mourn, the ones we celebrate, that we desperately cling to, the ones we feel trapped by – all of them often feel more fraught in this present age.
The information we hold and try to communicate becomes a difficult wield when in competition with so many other signals and thoughts and things we have to control and filter out. It’s amazing to think this is a cast sourced from a open audition call, because so often during the show the chemistry makes you certain that many of them had to be in the same year of the same drama school.
No one picks up this script lightly and each member of the cast do exceptional work in bringing each character and moment to life. Love and Information is a brave show, bravely presented, that deserves an audience.
Love and Information
Theatre Works, 14 Acland Street, St Kilda
Performance: Tuesday 3 June 2025
Season continues to 14 June 2025
Information and Bookings: www.theatreworks.org.au
Image: Charlie Morris and Felix Star – photo by Steven Mitchell Wright
Review: June Collins