Scenic Design & Prop Coordinator Alumni Teaching Artist
Cornish College of the Arts
Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information is a kaleidoscopic play of short scenes addressing contemporary issues about knowledge, technology and communication, and our capacity for love.
The play is in seven sections, numbered 1 to 7, each comprising a number of short scenes. In the published script, the scenes are each given a title (eg 'Secret', 'Affair', 'Fate', 'Chinese Poetry'). A 'Note on the Text' specifies that 'The sections should be played in the order given but the scenes can be played in any order within each section'. There are also a number of 'random' scenes, printed at the end of the published text, that can be performed at any stage of the play. Lines are unattributed to characters, and the characters 'are different in every scene' (with the possible exception of some of the random scenes), so there are potentially over a hundred characters in the play. The script rarely gives any context for the scenes, although sometimes a stage direction clarifies the action (eg 'One person tells a story to another').