Mad As Hops Productions’ teenaged crew are ready to debut their show.
By offering opportunities to aspiring actors who can’t sing and dance their way into musicals, the one-year-old production company is filling a void in the local theatre scene, and after last night’s performance, it’s obvious that they’ve found some untapped talent.
This rapid-fire play with 100 characters and 50 scenes crammed into 100 minutes, this play by British playwright Caryl Churchill presents snippets of conversations and situations, leaving the audience to fill in the blanks.
As Menchions put it, it’s like hearing one out of context sentence from a passerby on the sidewalk — you imagine the context yourself.
“In this flurry of activity, we will see how we deal with the information we have: what we know, what we want to know, what we want to forget, what secrets we want to keep, what burdens we want to give up,” the program explains.
OK. Let’s begin delving into our human needs.
Enter 12 actors, engrossed in their cellphones.
Each person mumbles half a sentence. I glance over to my attending pal. She looks as confused as I feel. I think that means we get it.
Scene 1: A girl tries to pry a secret from her friend, who repeatedly refuses to divulge. Soon, she gives in and whispers the secret. We can’t hear it.
Scene 9: Engrossed in a video game, a boy refuses to acknowledge his sister, who has something important to tell him. “I’m not your sister. I’m your mom.” They try to deal with the emotional impact of this new information. What happens to their relationship?
Scene 17: A girl recounts a recent dream. Online research shows that the dream symbolizes her husband’s infidelity. Is this a sign for her to finally be with her lesbian lover?
Scene 22: A man comes home after work and turns on the television. His wife nags him about something he forgot. We don’t know what he forgot.
Scene 31: Two women converse in sign language.
What are they saying?
Scene 37: Friends are fighting about a partner.
“I’m not sorry.” “You have to say it!” What happened?
You get the idea. Or maybe you don’t. It’s OK. You’re supposed to be a little lost. Like any great art film, you’re not supposed to fully “get it.”
An interesting look at the way we communicate with each other,
Love and Information was an absolute delight. The young cast showed their immense talent and it’s obvious that they have worked hard and will continue to wow audiences as they grow older.
Kudos to Mad As Hops Productions for putting on this show and for displaying the young talent found outside of the musical theatre realm.
I am already looking forward to the next performance!
Love and Information runs from Nov. 10-13 at the LSPU Hall in St. John’s.
