“Love and Information” with Trap Door Theatre

Trap Door Theatre is currently performing Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information as a part of their 26th  season. With direction by Kim McKean and an ensemble of nine performers, the production seeks to analyze how the over-saturation of media has enhanced and weakened modern day relationships between humans. The performance succeeds in presenting this theme with an interesting twist that I will elaborate on later; however, the unfinished framing technique as well as an inconsistent ensemble may leave some audience members uninspired. 

Here’s the thing about the script: there isn’t much there, which is on purpose. Churchill’s text only supplies words spoken out loud and doesn’t even give character names. It is up to the director and the actors to create the given circumstances and plot lines. This production adds a frame of a young man (the under-utilized Jake Flum) posting video logs on his facebook account titled “Depression.” In scene transitions, he either appears saying seemingly irrelevant half sentences, or we are introduced to the scene that is about to play out before us, implying that all of the scenes take place in a computer simulation created by him. This is an exciting concept at first, but then it doesn’t go anywhere. By adding this puppet master, it leaves a desire for a timeline. Why is he posting these videos? Who is his audience? Is this leading up to something drastic like a suicide or an act of violence? 

One of the trademarks of this script are the short scenes. Perhaps due to opening night nerves or misdirection, too many of the scenes end as they begin: at an eleven in terms of shouting and energy. The actors start the scenes as if it were already the end of the scene. This might be due to the shortness of the scenes, scaring the actors and directors into thinking that to reach the climax of the scene, they would have to start the scene at a place not too far below the intensity of the ending. This disregards the nuances of the script and the talent of the performers. Also, as cathartic as shouting might seem on stage, rarely any of us off stage shout as much in our day to day life as some theatre artists may believe that we do. 

There were a handful of scenes that were played for laughs. There is nothing wrong with having comedy in a cerebral play. But it was obvious that this interpretation is laid over the scene because they are trying to justify some baffling text with the fact that a character is just “High-strung” from media overload. Making a person the humor in a scene, as opposed to the situation in the scene, puts too much responsibility on the actor and takes away the objection? of the scene and the writer. 

In an ensemble show, it is crucial that there is a cohesiveness in both the performers and their interpretations; they need not be the same, but they must have the same genre and level of dexterity. Within Love and Information’s ensemble, some performers stay at an 11 the entire time, and some find dynamic shifts. Those that stay at an 11 seem to be implying that they are the computer simulation characters of our “Depression Puppet Master” (as I have dubbed the character), and the others seemed to be playing the recollection of real people viewed by the “Depression Puppet Master.”

Stand outs in the ensemble include Brian Huther, who accompanies the scenes on multiple instruments ranging from accordion to piano to ukulele. While some performers apply the same persona to different scenes, Huther adeptly manipulates his vocal resonances for different roles. Joining him in this level of dexterity is Lilly Tukur, who displays astonishing physical articulation and interpretation through varying characters.

The ensemble vibe of the show is further undercut by the makeup design. I’m going to make a grand, sweeping statement here by saying that all of the performers who would be labeled as *women* by traditional society have makeup resembling the stage design with lines extending from the end of their eyelids to their temples along with fake eyelashes. The *men* in the cast had no makeup. Because the theatre was so small, the contrast was apparent and rendered the *men* more “natural” and the *women* more “artificial.” This would have been a great way to highlight the objectification of women in the media, but this choice didn’t have any apparent effect on the characters in the scenes or the actors’ portrayals. Everything would have played out the same if none of them had been wearing makeup. 

The sound, scenic, lighting, and costume design all have a cohesion that is missing in the ensemble. The actors are dressed in industrial uniforms/jumpsuits by Rachel Sypniewksi, and the walls resemble the hardware of a computer with a ledge for the Depression Puppet Master to perch upon (courtesy of designer Nicholas Schwartz). Stark lighting and strobe lights by Richard Norwood pair nicely with a mechanical sound-scape woven by Matt Test (Incidental Music) Sam Clapp and Jake Sorgen (Sound Design). However, all of these visual and aural renderings are distinctly unmodern, either being reminiscent of technology in the 90’s and early 2000’s or representing a possible future dystopia. 

My second grand sweeping statement is that the text no longer holds excitement for an audience member who has never read or seen it before. Love and Information is a text that is often used in theatre classrooms to grow a budding actor’s creativity and ingenuity, and perhaps it should remain in the classroom from now on. The appeal lies in revisioning certain scenes, which can only bring pleasure to those who have read it and/or seen the interpretations of other theatres. A “love and information virgin” simply doesn’t have the eye for the similarities and differences that a current production has with the canon of other productions. 

A hidden trap in any drama is that the water level in a dam has to rise before it overflows; it can’t just be constantly overflowing. A burst of emotion is only cathartic when we get to see the swelling and suppression leading up to it. Without the struggle to remain calm, the calamity is just exhausting instead exhilarating. If the production seeks to leave the audience members with the symptom of media overload (a bloated feeling with a sour stomach from too much bad coffee, and a headache from a stiff neck resulting from too much time looking at a screen), then they certainly provide that. But if they sought to also inspire hope for a cure, then they forgot to suggest how we could more healthily incorporate media/technology/information into our lives. 

Love and Information runs from September 12th through October 19th. Performances are at 8 pm on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. $20 on Thursdays and Fridays, $25 on Saturdays, 2 for 1 Admission on Thursdays. It has a running time of 80 minutes with no intermission. STROBE LIGHTS AND HAZE are used during the performance. Trap Door Theatre is located at 1655 West Cortland Street, Chicago IL. 

Somewhat recommended

Sophie Vitello