When your lover's in Spain and you're in New Zealand there are many ways to keep in touch these days and Love You Approximately explores the story of Imogen and Pere and their relationship across half the world.
It is devised by Julieanne Eason, of the clinic, a group of five artists also spread around the world, who work in multimedia, site-specific work and other experimental media.
Eason, a videographer, went to art school in Berlin on a scholarship and is now based in Spain.
The group had its 10th anniversary party last year with some members in New Zealand and some in London, linked by Skype.
Skype, a software application that allows voice and video calls over the internet, plays a part in Love You Approximately, along with texting, emails, facebook and online chats.
The idea grew out of Eason's own experience chatting to her family and friends from the other side of the world, and also her friends' experience in long-distance relationships.
"It's a strange feeling of both proximity and the feeling they are on the other side of the world," she says.
During the devising process, which took place in Spain, the group worked with an actor in New Zealand.
The two actors in the show never met each other in the flesh.
The play is more like a film with a live actress, says Eason.
In New Zealand it is performed with a live actress; the actor in Spain is on video.
When it was performed in Spain, the male actor was live and the actress was on video.
It was first performed at the Christchurch Arts Festival last year, then in Gerona, Spain, in September, and in Wellington last month.
See it
Love You Approximately opens tonight at the Fortune Theatre with Lara Fischel-Chisholm live and Olmo Hidalgo in Spain.
It plays until March 20, as part of the Dunedin Fringe Festival.
