Let me give you an information tidbit: love and information is a crazy ride…. a fun journey through a myriad of characters, scenes, and subjects. A hundred personalities are portrayed by 8 talented actors playing everything from a child who can’t feel pain, a couple experimenting on chicken brains, to a man who no longer recognizes his wife.
It does not have the typical wham-bam-thank-you-mam sketch-after-sketch feel to it at all. Each scene is carefully paced, imaginative, and surprisingly deep. Entire plays could be written around many of the vignettes. The play successfully has the audience (and the characters) examine memory, facts, communication, sex, and love from multiple perspectives. But just as you start to ponder the question asked by one tableau, you’re softly taken up on another wildly different adventure.
In the written script, there is very little stage direction, no characters are named or gendered, scenes can be performed in different orders and there a series of additional vignettes which can be inserted at the director’s fancy. This gives the directors (Alistair Wilson and Tanja Jacobs) and the production team incredible creativity over casting options and emphasis of the story.
A “supporting role” was played by the giant multi-purpose “black box”, which was often rotated by the actors to cleverly reveal yet another facet. The black and white staging had a modern feel to it, with its white-taped grid, modern chairs and subtle lighting which all worked. This also made the rare appearance of colour stand out even further – it will take a while to forget Peter Fernandes’ take on his three red flowers.
Other memorable moments include Jason Cadieux’s not-getting-it interviewer, Sarah Deller’s wine and pedicure lady, Maggie Huculak’s “dance” with her walker, Shela Ingabire-Isaro’s facts wizard, David Jansen’s hideaway hermit, Reid Millar’s flag magic, Ngozi Paul’s lesbian temptress, and everyone discoing to Hall & Oates.
This gives you a taste of voyage you’ll be taken on. There are no height restrictions for this roller coaster ride. On until April 29th at the Berkley Street Downstairs Theatre. Tickets.
Photo: Dahlia Katz