Information Overload at Shoebox Theater

12 actors, 100 characters and 57 scenes squeeze into Theater Vertigo's new show.

By Penelope Bass

More than 100 characters dash through 57 micro-vignettes about things like dating computers in British playwright Caryl Churchill's 2012 play.

Theatre Vertigo accomplishes this with a cast of 12 and no small amount of ingenuity in their tiny Shoebox Theater. On a pull-apart stage with a set that folds out from the walls, nameless characters wax philosophical about the meaning of God; they make awkward first-date small talk; they tell secrets. Friend One doesn't understand why Friend Two is dating a computer. "She's just information!" exclaims One in exasperation. Two replies, nonplussed: "Aren't we all?"

The vignettes are hit-or-miss, some cleverly amusing and others painfully obvious or purely nonsensical. But taken as a whole, the play is a fair-enough representation of a society suffering from information overload and seeking that titular holy grail, um…love?

GO: Love and Information is at Shoebox Theater, 2110 SE 10th Ave. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday and 2 pm Sundays, April 8-May 7. $20.

photo from Theatre Vertigo photo by Gary Norman

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