Research

Love and Information is a play written by Caryl Churchill in 2012. As it is a more modern play, it has already gained a lot of interest and traction. This is primarily due to two things. One is Caryl Churchill's credibility as she is a well-known and, award winning playwright. the other is the flexability of the play which is open to perception from the director, actors and audience.

Love and information is a play that was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre in London and was directed by James McDonald who cast 16 actors that rotated through the 100 characters that exist within the play. One of the particularly unusual things about the play is how the director is allowed to perform the scenes in any order within each act. The entirety of the play consists of seven acts.

 

Trailer for Love and Information at New York Theatre Workshop

Trailer for Love and Information at Sheffield Crubicle

Both of the trailers are attempting to give the audience a taste of the story of Love and Information. I think the first trailer, which is from New York Theatre Workshop, does this very well as it sets up the base of the story you will be going to see once you watch the entirety of the play. Though, it also leaves enough of the storyline out to intriguing you. However the second trailer, the one from Sheffield Crubicle, does not really inform the viewer on what is going on as it only shows one scene of the play. The trailer doesn't contain any clips of the play itself and feels very messy as the actors are talking over each other.

As I was watching the video about the director's vision on this play I developed a myriad of opinions. First of all, I don't agree with the analogy that she uses to describe the play as I have not perceived the play as a train of nice surprises. Instead I have thought of the play as being odd and without a deeper understanding of drama I feel like the audience would struggle to appreciate certain scenes and topics. Another thing that challenges me about the play is the lack of storyline as this is what people usually expect when they go see a play. This can be a surprise to the audience if they aren't familiar with the play which can lead to confused reactions. Another thing that I disagree with is her statement that every scene is a mini-play, this would indicate that every scene has a form of context, which I don't believe is the case. Something that I do completely agree with is her view on characters and that you shouldn't see the same character in more than one scene. 

Caryl Churchill was born in London on 3rd September 1938 and moved to Montreal, Canada at the age of 10.While there she attended the Trafalgar School for Girls and then returned to London to go to the University of Oxford and achieved a B.A. degree in English Literature. While at Oxford she also wrote her first four plays: 'Downstairs' (produced in 1958), 'You've No Need To Be Frightened', 'Having a Wonderful Time' (produced in 1960) and 'Easy Death' (produced in 1962) - all of these plays were performed at Oxford University.

As Caryl progressed through her career she wrote many plays, radio shorts and TV shorts. Arguably her most famous play is Top Girls written in 1982 which centers around Marlene; a career-driven woman who is heavily invested in women's success in business and serious money. The play also  focuses on the British stock market, specifically the London international financial futures and options exchange and is currently being performed at the National Theatre.

Caryl has also won many awards for her contribution to script writing but her most notable wins were her four Obies Awards for Cloud Nine, Top Girls, Serious Money and the Sustained Achievement award as well as an Olivier for Serious Money.