Sarah Kane was an English playwright whose works are predominantly themed darkly, with horrific and graphic violence, rape and torture . Crave, her fourth published play, is her first composition without strong direction and narrative arc, allowing the creative team showing it to sculpt it themselves.
Crave is a lilting, personal and poetic piece, light on story-telling, but rather consisting of a series of tiny interactions between its characters. It is a testament to SUDS veteran Michaela Savina and her actors that they were able to deliver each vignette as its own play, with its own emotion, its own structure, its own story. It’s human and intimate. You feel in parts a little like you’re overhearing conversations you shouldn’t be, and in others, like you’ve heard them many times before.
The skills demonstrated by the actors and creatives, who took so fragmented a piece and made something not just visually beautiful, but intellectually engaging, were incredible.
A tasteful and understated set, costuming, and lighting all supported the actors’ truly impressive ability. To take such a stripped-down text and from it generate something with the variation and interest that they did is nothing short of powerful.
Montague Basement curated an exquisite piece from a difficult text, and displayed a considerable talent from its actors. Go see this show.
Author’s note: this is the second version of this review published, the first retracted by the author following some well-deserved criticism about his description of the playwright.