Review: LOVE AND INFORMATION at The Monstrous Little Theatre Company

Director Jeff Larson  and the cast of LOVE AND INFORMATION, a play by Caryl Churchill, have delivered a standout production that plays really well in an intimate space like White Wall Studios. The actors that portray the various characters reveal layer after layer of personality and emotion in this wild ride of thought and introspection.  There are seven sections of seven scenes each in the 90 minute presentation, and while it takes a little adjustment to settle into the rhythm of the form and construct of the piece it seems to latch on to your imagination and you just move through it with the cast.  Ultimately, the director and cast have molded a cohesive flow with very minimal set and props.  It’s refreshing, and gets down to the real crux of what actors and directors love about live performance; the literature, the humanity delivered by actors who have mastered the craft of authentic delivery of emotion and the presentation of thematic conventions.

LOVE AND INFORMATION is about the way humans connect through intellect, communication, emotion and a spiritual desire to be “known.”  As I was watching, and soaking up all of the brilliant performances, I found myself likening the performance to a giant puzzle, with all the actors placing their figurative “pieces” into the landscape of the playwright’s entire picture of what it means to be human.  If that doesn’t make sense to anyone but me, I will understand, because seeing this production is a “personal” experience for everyone that sees it.  This “being human,” is a messy experience, and sometimes peeling back the layers of information, communication and connection with the people we lovingly or grudgingly inhabit space with is an emotional rollercoaster.  

I have watched the acting skills of Tom Roberts for over 40 years; first as a college student at Northern in Aberdeen (“Who’s On First” the Abbott and Costello classic - BRILLIANT!) and then as he toured South Dakota on South Dakota Arts Council grant, and then performing in various theaters in the area and it’s always an experience I treasure. Tom embodies the idea of being “born to do something” in the arc of his acting career. Tom and Erin Sharp deliver a hilarious and absurd dialogue in their first interaction on stage that must be seen to be appreciated, it’s brilliant comedy with rapid timing and energy and I couldn’t tell you what it really meant, but it was a “10 on a scale of 1 to 10” for the opening night audience.   These two, then both went on to present a myriad of emotionally and physically complex characterizations in the play, and it literally feels like a master class of “acting for the actor” to watch them perform.  Tamra Huffman and Jess Johannsen bring some lovely energy and pace to the production, and their facial expressions are testaments to the ability of actors to communicate a vast array of emotion and thought with the way the brain connects the muscles of our faces; again, a masterclass of acting technique. Nancy Tapken had some moments of such depth and magnificence in portrayals of difficult emotions; “turning it on” in one moment and then walking away from it in the next. That kind of acting takes a lot of inner work for an actor to portray with such excellence.  This production was my first experience seeing Emily Wilson, Valerie Marsh and Macie Lupica in such an intimate setting, and they all did an admirable job in navigating all the characters they portrayed in this production. It was pure pleasure to experience their talents and I look forward to seeing them again.

There are so many reasons to see this production of LOVE AND INFORMATION; recognizing yourself in these snippets of character portrayals and life experiences is only one of them.  Tickets may be purchased online at https://www.monstrouslittletheatre.com/showtickets .

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