Radio review: Love and Information

Back to my occasional reviews of radio adaptations of stage work, where BBC Radio 3's recent production of Love and Information is the first audio adaptation, and 12 years seems like a surprisingly long time to wait to give it that treatment: After all, Caryl Churchill's 2012 play is an experiment in form that requires all kinds of resources for a live revival, that are a lot easier to get around on radio, where sketch shows are common. And that's essentially the format Churchill used for this play, whose cast very quickly run their way through more than a hundred characters in over fifty scenes that are rarely as long as two minutes, and can be as short as a single sneeze. As an audience member, one advantage this has is that I was able to focus entirely on the scenes and not the staging - I remember the original production at the Royal Court as being brilliant, but it was impossible not to be slightly distracted by the impressively slick scene changes.

It did come with the different distraction of trying to recognise the voices of the ten cast members each time they pop up; for me the easiest to spot by far were Michele Austin and Karl Johnson; they're joined by Josh Barrow, Rosie Cavaliero, Kathleen Cranham, Emma Fielding, Karl Johnson, Joel MacCormack, Sam Swann, Danielle Vitalis and Alan Williams in Mary Peate's production.

The short scenes are split into sections whose overall themes are sometimes more obvious than others: Part 4 is very strongly connected by memory, the way our memories differ, and the way people today rely on technology to record and replay them in a way that was never available to past generations. Part 5 makes links between the ways we use patterns to understand the world around us, whether they be language, maths or religion. Sometimes the order the sketches come in feels significant - Part 7 opens with a man insisting his virtual girlfriend is real to him; followed by people finding infinite translations in a brutally minimalist Chinese poem, it feels like they're both asking if reality is defined by how we interpret it.

Without visuals the soundscape is important, and sound designer Jon Nicholls plays with juxtaposition at times - like the potentially creepy fairytale of the boy who didn't know fear being soundtracked by a busy swimming pool. People whose brains are missing certain common understandings crop up often - a man incapable of feeling physical pain but perfectly capable of the emotional kind, asks if pain is like being sad in your leg. The introduction from some of the cast members warns that trying too hard to make sense of the pay is a mistake, and it's best to let it wash over you, but the discordant, buzzy sound design linking the scenes certainly makes it feel like it's designed to feel like your brain's synapses jumping from one topic to a loosely connected one. But yes, it's probably best not to overthink it, and just sit back into Churchill's hyperreal scenes which feel both familiar and slightly alien, some funny, some moving, some leaving you utterly nonplussed.

Love and Information by Caryl Churchill is available on BBC Sounds in the UK.

Running time: 1 hour 20 minutes.

Image credit: BBC.