Director Andrew Lewis (centre) with acting students Audrey Blyde (Inglewood) and Kingsley O’Connor (Morley).
Camera IconDirector Andrew Lewis (centre) with acting students Audrey Blyde (Inglewood) and Kingsley O’Connor (Morley). Credit: Supplied/Andrew Ritchie

WAAPA students play with Love and Information at Roundhouse Theatre

Tanya MacNaughtonEastern Reporter

WAAPA director Andrew Lewis loves the tapestry of ideas presented in British playwright Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information.

He is sure audiences watching his third year acting students perform it will enjoy this reflection on our lives too.

“Churchill is in her early 70s and has had an amazing career writing plays for 40 years,” Lewis said.

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“This one is her most recent, which was written in 2012, and is all about love and information in this new age of technology and social media; I suppose you could say it’s an expose on how we relate now.

“What’s really interesting is that most plays have a linear story and this isn’t like that. There are 57 scenes and they’re all completely different stories.

“Each scene has two or three people in it. They’re all mini separate stories and some scenes are only 30 seconds long and then others are four or five minutes.”

Lewis said the nature of this format also commented on how fractured our own lives were, constantly switching between using computers, tablets, phones and televisions.

“I think there’ll be a lot of identification because the way we receive information these days is relentless,” he said.

“And it doesn’t even stop when you go home anymore. There aren’t many nights where my wife and I aren’t sitting there with our laptops open.”

The season at Roundhouse Theatre from August 25 to 31 will be the first time WAAPA has presented the production.

“Sydney Theatre Company presented it as a co-production with Melbourne and I’m sure Black Swan State Theatre Company would have liked to have done it, but it’s too big a cast,” Lewis said.

“It’s kind of perfect for us because we’ve got 18 students in our third year, so everyone has three to five roles each. They all get the opportunity to show their skills and reveal their talent, which is great because there will be a lot of agents and producers coming to watch the students.

“Sometimes in other plays there might only be two or three lead roles and the rest are minor supporting roles; this gives everyone the opportunity to be seen. It also only runs for an hour and 20 minutes, with no interval, so the whole thing goes through in a quick timeframe. It’s a very interesting way to absorb a play rather than a normal narrative.”

THE ESSENTIALS

What: Love and Information

Where: Roundhouse Theatre, WAAPA, Mt Lawley

When: August 25 to 31

Tickets: www.waapa.ecu.edu.au

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