We live surrounded as we are by social media accounts, breaking news and instant connections to everyone we know. What are our brains doing with all that? How do we, as a society, process so much information?
Caryl Churchill鈥檚 Love and Information is a poignant commentary about the wall of information we face today. The format resembles scrolling through a newsfeed on a cellphone. Every scene in the play 鈥� which kicks off the Fountain School鈥檚 2019-20 season this week 鈥� is jarringly different, with varied content and tone.
Frances Howlett and Devon McCarron
The play has seven sections with a number of scenes that can be arranged in any order within those sections, and a few bonus scenes that can be inserted anywhere throughout the show. With a cast of characters that has no specified gender, age, or name, Love and Information leaves a lot up to interpretation.
Up to a challenge
Ready to take on that task is director Laura Vingoe-Cram.
鈥淚 think ultimately the show is about connection, human connection, and trying to find ways of communicating,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it has any easy answers though.鈥�
Vingoe-Cram is back to her beginnings at 新澳门六合彩开奖 after completing a master鈥檚 degree in Theatre Directing at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and going on to professional work. A King鈥檚 College alum, her undergraduate degree is in Theatre and Early Modern studies.
鈥淚 got my start directing at King鈥檚 doing stuff in the pit with the Kings Theatre Society. That鈥檚 where I really got my feet wet, and I just caught the bug and I haven鈥檛 stopped.鈥�
Tori Devine and Danielle Toner
Being the driving force behind this production means that Vingoe-Cram has a lot of responsibility in deciding how to handle these scenes. Does this information do more than just inform us? Does it change the way we process things? We are not always equipped to handle the information given to us, as seen in the fragment 鈥淓arthquake鈥�: as one character reacts empathetically by crying at footage of a natural disaster, another merely comments on how cool all the little cars in the giant wave looked.
The show offers a close-to-home commentary about how we have become different in a world fueled by technology. However, the outlook is not necessarily grim, because the play could be about learning to adapt.
鈥淭hat last scene, it鈥檚 one of my favourites,鈥� says Vingoe-Cram. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e just asking questions to each other 鈥� and all the facts are wrong, by the way 鈥� and in the middle of these inaccurate facts she asks 鈥淒o you love me?鈥�, and in the middle of answering another question he says 鈥淵es.鈥� I think ultimately what it鈥檚 about is connection and love still surviving in the age of information.鈥�
Distraction is key
When st