Thursday 29 April, 7.30pm Friday 30 April, 2pm & 7.30pm Saturday 1 May, 7.30pm Love and Information By Caryl Churchill Directed by Pooja Ghai Guildhall School of Music & Drama Founded in 1880 by the City of London Corporation Chairman of the Board of Governors Vivienne Littlechild Principal Lynne Williams Vice-Principal & Director of Drama Orla O’Loughlin Vice-Principal & Director of Production Arts Andy Lavender Please visit our website at gsmd.ac.uk Photographs of the final year acting company are by: Dave Buttle (Charlie Beck, Lily Hardy, Isla Lee, Noah Marullo, Umi Myers, Felix Newman, Jidé Okunola, Guildhall School is part of Culture Mile: Sonny Pilgrem, Alyth Ross, Dan Wolff), Robert Harper culturemile.london (Kitty Hawthorne), Harry Livingstone (Nia Towle), Wolf Marloh (Zachary Nachbar-Seckel), Clare Park (Grace Cooper Milton), Phil Sharp (Genevieve Lewis, Sam Thorpe-Spinks), Michael Shelford (Levi Brown, Guildhall School is provided by the City of London Sheyi Cole, Aoife Gaston, Brandon Grace, Conor McLeod, Corporation as part of its Hassan Najib, Millie Smith, Tara Tijani, Dolly Webb), contribution to the cultural life David Stone (Justice Ritchie), Faye Thomas of London and the nation (Caitlin Ffion Griffiths), YellowBelly (Hope Kenna) Love and Information By Caryl Churchill Pooja Ghai director Rosa Maggiora designer Diane Alison-Mitchell movement director Andy Taylor composer Sam Levy lighting designer Maisie Roberts sound designer Thursday 29, Friday 30 April and Saturday 1 May 2021 Live performances broadcast from Silk Street Theatre Recording of this performance by any means whatsoever is strictly prohibited. Please note this production contains strong language and adult themes. The Play Love and Information is a curious mixture. Churchill’s thoughts even at a time when this subject was in its infancy. At the end of March 2020 YouGov, the significant but not infallible data analytics The play encourages us to see the world firm, asked a question of the British public. from a plethora of angles and perspectives. The question was: The scenes are so varied yet so pointed, so general yet so universal, it churns your Would you say over the past two weeks that brain thinking about the construction of it you have spoken to your loved ones more or less as a cohesive whole. And yet that whole does than usual, or about the same? exist. This is the genius of Caryl Churchill. You can love it, you can hate it, you can 58% of over 3,000 adults in the UK said they grapple with it for years or you can consume spoke to loved ones about the same amount it and leave it behind – whatever you do as they usually would. The split between the with Love and Information, it will make an other two major groups is startling; 36% of impact of some type. Just a quick Google of adults said they spoke to their loved ones more the play is enough to give you an aneurysm and only 3% said they spoke to them less. if you try to engage with the myriad of different opinions on it from critics and This is sort of understandable – lockdown audiences the world over: was looming, the proliferation of information about COVID-19 was reaching The Socialist review said of the original fever pitch and public belief in the health production: service was beginning to waver. “The play asks us to consider how meaning is What is notable about this survey is that constructed and to participate in the process.” it shows love and information are more entwined than ever before in human history. I mean – what!? That’s no small feat for This year the majority of us have had to a night out at the theatre. live in a world where information and technology have changed all our lives in the A Chicago critic was less contemplative most tangible way imaginable. Lockdowns about a revival in 2019 and said, derisively: have been put in place across the world and left us reliant on a small black box that lives “If you have formal artistic training, at some in our pockets to connect with others. point, you were probably in a class in which you were instructed to write a scene in a Caryl Churchill’s play premiered in minute. Then, to make sure everybody did the 2012. Though I am not completely down assignment, the students all read their scenes with Caryl’s writing process, one can out loud, and learning happened. With the help safely imagine that the play began its life of professional production values from Remy sometime around 2010. Its prescience is a Bumppo, that’s basically what Caryl Churchill’s curious thing and showcases the depth of 2012 play Love and Information is.” Where as a Los Angeles critic reached for the thesaurus when reviewing the play: “Churchill is curious about what this informational freight is doing to us.” This plethora (the thesaurus has clearly got to me) of opinions is what makes Love and Information unique. It is difficult to think of another living writer who can inspire so many different opinions and divide audiences so sharply, so easily, so artfully. Churchill and her subjects, in miniature scenes and vignettes, manage to plough the public consciousness so effectively that it’s easy to see why she stands alone as the UK’s greatest living playwright. ToXX return to the YouGov survey, I’d like to XX pose the same question to you, the audience, just as the play does. Do you think you have spoken to your loved ones more or less over this past year? Has technology brought us together or has it driven us apart? I’d suggest that love and information had a boom year in 2020 which is all set to continue in 2021. Programme Notes by Andy McNamee Caryl Churchill playwright Caryl Churchill’s plays include: Owners; Light Shining in Buckinghamshire; Traps; Cloud Nine; Top Girls; Fen; Serious Money; Ice Cream; Mad Forest; The Skriker; Blue Hart; This is a Chair; Far Away; A Number; A Dream Play; Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?; Seven Jewish Children; Love and Information; Here We Go; Pigs and Dogs; Escaped Alone; Glass.Kilss.Bluebeard.Imp. Music theatre includes: Lives of the Great Poisoners and Hotel, both with Orlando Gough. Caryl has also written for radio and television. Photo by Marc Brenner Ensemble Aoife Gaston Caitlin Ffion Griffiths Lily Hardy Genevieve Lewis Conor McLeod Umi Myers Felix Newman Sonny Pilgrem Sam Thorpe-Spinks Dolly Webb A listing of CVs for Guildhall School Final Year Actors may be viewed on the School’s website: gsmd.ac.uk/finalyearactors Final year actors 2020/21 Charlie Levi Sheyi Grace Aoife Beck Brown Cole Cooper Milton Gaston Brandon Caitlin Ffion Lily Kitty Hope Grace Griffiths Hardy Hawthorne Kenna Isla Genevieve Noah Conor Umi Lee Lewis Marullo McLeod Myers Zachary Hassan Felix Jidé Sonny Nachbar-Seckel Najib Newman Okunola Pilgrem Justice Alyth Millie Sam Tara Ritchie Ross Smith Thorpe-Spinks Tijani Nia Dolly Dan Towle Webb Wolff Production Team Costume Supervisor Production Assistant Additional Production Staff Tara Boland Darcey Robinson Staff Stage Manager Wardrobe Manager Production Sound Engineer Luke Mason Lucy Lawless Thomas Dixon Staff Stage Management Costume Assistants Sound Operator Supervisor Lucy Lawless Mary Deakes Lizzie Donaghy Imogen Leather Deputy Stage Manager Staff Production Manager Production Electrician Ophir Westman Bob Holmes Joshua Collins ASM Book Cover Production Sound Kate Buxton Electrician Assistant Natalya Scase Assistant Stage Managers Ross Carmichael Lighting Programmer Emily Nellis Guy Knox-Holmes The School thanks Production Manager the following for their Will Darby contribution to this production Technical Manager Aled Roberts Katherine Verberne (ASM cover) Ros Chase, Ashe DeWaal, Hayden Gurney, Ethan Howlett, Rylee McDaniel, Ben Mills, Stanley Olden, Ben Tinniswood (lighting crew) A listing of CVs for Guildhall School Final Year Production Arts students may be viewed on the School’s website: gsmd.ac.uk/finalyearPA Watch Guildhall events online for free Until we can welcome audiences back to our buildings once again, Guildhall School invites you to experience the power of the performing arts online. Visit our website to enjoy exceptional performances delivered by the School’s vibrant community of musicians, actors, production artists and special guests. All broadcasts – from big band gigs to orchestral concerts, solo recitals to drama productions – are free of charge to watch. Discover more at gsmd.ac.uk/events Guildhall School is provided by the City of London Corporation @guildhallschool Biographies Pooja Ghai director Rosa Maggiora designer Pooja was the Associate Director of Theatre Theatre Includes: Zorro the musical Royal Stratford East from 2015 to 2018. (Hopemill Theatre); Hobson’s Choice In 2018 she won the Eastern Eye award (Royal Exchange); Approaching Empty for Best Director for Lions and Tigers at (Kiln Theatre); Lions & Tigers (The Sam Shakespeare’s Globe. Wanamaker Festival/Shakespeare’s Globe); Nina, A story about me & Nina Simone Theatre: Approaching Empty (Tamasha (Young Vic/Traverse/Edinburgh Festival/ Theatre); Creative Producer Hobsons Unity Theatre/Liverpool/Rikstearten/ Choice (Royal Exchange); Lions and Tigers Stadstearten Stockholm and Swedish Tour/ (Shakespeare’s Globe, Sam Wanamaker UK Tour); The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Playhouse); Blue Stockings (East 15); Chameleon Skin (Theatre Royal Stratford Rapunzel, Counting Stars, The House of East/Belgrade Theatre); The Wiz In Between (Theatre Royal Stratford (Birmingham Rep/West Yorkshire East); The Empress (Embassy Theatre); Playhouse); Starstruck, Not Black & White, The Accordion Shop (Leicester Curve/ Women, Power & Politics, Stones In His Warwick Arts Centre); As You Like It Pockets (Tricycle Theatre); A Midsummer (Ellen Terry Theatre); 13 (Corbett Theatre); Night’s Dream (Almeida/Edinburgh The Difference (Rich Mix/Soho Theatre); Festival); Freeoutgoing (Royal Court/ Bobby & Gina (Pavilion); Female of the Edinburgh Festival); The Penelopiad Species (Global Café); Top Girls (Edinburgh (The Swan Royal Shakespeare Company/ Fringe Festival); Metamorphosis National Arts Theatre, Canada); Anansi (Burton-Taylor Theatre & Edinburgh & the Magic Mirror (Hackney Empire); Fringe Festival); Getting On (Burton-Taylor Mother Courage (Nottingham Playhouse/ Theatre Studio).