Crave by Sarah Kane
at The Storeroom October
6 to 22, 2000
Reviewer: Kate
Herbert
Sarah Kane writes about depression and lost love,
abandonment and fear of death. Crave was first produced in the UK 1998. Kane
committed suicide the following year. her writing could not purge her
desperation.
Crave reeks of Kane's existential pain. Four characters
speak in disconnected dialogue. They seem to be two couples or perhaps they are
four totally separate individuals voicing the patterns of dialogue we all
reiterate in our vain attempts to survive in relationships.
The four actors (Miria Kostiuk, Trudy Hellier, Neil Pigot,
Michael Robinson) sit or stand in an empty space each in his or her own light.
Each a discreet and isolated soul in a physical and emotional vacuum.
A young woman (Kostiuk) speaks about her abusive childhood,
fraught adulthood, fear of death and damaged relationship.
A man (Pigot) Who may be her ex-lover, sits and weeps as he
describes his dysfunctional relationship to his "dark angel". He
grieves for the pain he causes both her and himself, for the loss of love, the
need for love, the power of passion and despair.
Another woman stands under a single light and demands her
lover leave - or stay. She feels little. She cannot love. The world is cold for
her.
The man who seems to be her lover (Robinson) is the one who
seeks a quick fix, who cannot attach, who is always romancing and speaking a
foreign language.
The aching emotional pain is palpable but it is diluted to a
bearable level by the abstraction of the overlaying of the dialogue of the four
actors.
Janice Muller's direction is intelligent and crisp. She
keeps the space empty and the characters full.
Even the unplanned refrigeration noises on the roof of the
venue added some rough ambience to Kane's profoundly sad play.
By Kate Herbert
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