Constant Craving...

(Photo of left to right: John Lescault, Kathleen Coons, and Joe Isenberg)

Matt, Eleasha and I went to see Crave at Signature Theatre this past Saturday night. I went into it having heard certain things and read certain reviews. Many of the reviews seemed to think that because Crave seems to fight being something conventional, that it is just unconventional for unconventionality's sake. Ok. I also had friends who saw it and loved it, saying how intense it was.

All of this only made me want to see Crave more.

******SPOILER ALERT********

As I walked into the theatre, there they are: Deborah Hazlett, Kathleen Coons, Joe Isenberg, and John Lescault. They are perched on "ledges" that are on the 4 walls of the black box. We got to our seat, and Kathleen Coons was literally over my right shoulder on her ledge. Bright lights shone up on them, and the sounds of traffic commotion filled the house. They were all on the verge of jumping off. Each one of them were going through different things. Kathleen was frantically patting her hands against her hips while breathing heavily and looking down. John had his back to the ledge, unable to face his fate. Deborah occasionally looked down, then just out at the city. She was in such an emotional pain that I could feel it from across the theatre. Joe Isenberg was staring indifferent into the void. Then the noise gets louder, more traffic, alarm clocks, ringing of phones, loud talking, ect. fill the theatre loudly. All four step closer to the edge. As the noise gets louder, they take one step out off of the ledge, and the theatre goes dark as noise becomes deafening and anguished.

When the lights come back on, the dialogue begins as all four are in a non specific place that looks like a sandbox with blackish sand in it. The four players sift and walk and dig through this sand the rest of the piece. I loved this set. It reminded me of so many things at once, but yet did not. It seemed like a playground at the base of the psychosis where things were sifted through. The set was the most effective when the lights were used with it. Several times the actors would dig in the sand and there was light coming up from beneath it. This was extremely effective. Really cool looking, too.

The piece itself. I like to think of the piece as well- have you ever seen any slam poetry? Well, this was like slam poetry, but written by a suicidal British woman. The words flow over you, and you catch what sticks out to your mind, and apply it to what you are seeing, or feeling. Just like you would do with opera or dance. The piece, as staged gorgeously by Jeremy Skidmore, seems to flow like a modern dance piece. The four players move in such fantastic patters and form such amazing pictures.

As you watch the piece, you can truly identify with certain phrases that stick out in the text. There were times when I cried from the pain of knowing how a character felt, having been there myself. And there is the sadness of it. We have all been in dark places of guttural anguish at one point or another. How we choose to deal with it is a different story. This play is culled from phrases that the playwright Sarah Kane jotted down in her notebooks for years. These words feel so personal. It feels like the last thoughts of someone one the brink. Sarah Kane took her own life a little over a year after Crave came out.

Her own bio in the program says, " After completing Crave, Kane admitted herself for depression to the Maudsley Hospital in south London. After a brief treatment, she recovered in time to enjoy Crave's critical triumph. Unfortunately her recovery was short lived and the depression returned. In January 1999, after completing 4.48 Psychosis (her final play), she swallowed 150 anti depressants and 50 sleeping pills. Her flat-mate found her in time and rushed her to King's College Hospital. But two days later, she was left alone for 90 minutes and was later discovered hanging from her shoelaces in a nearby bathroom. She was just 28 years old."

So young and so talented and troubled. Her pain rings out over you as you watch Crave. Crave is theatre like you don't regularly see. It is and explosion of anguish, hurt, frustration, humor, and at times, hope. Matt said that he thought that it could even be interpreted as not even voices on the brink of suicide, but voices who were trying to end one chapter in their life and move on to a new one. Whether it is a relationship that they are leaving, or trying to leave behind the anguish of incest, or rape, which are all mentioned in the text. Two phrases that seemed to occur through the night were, "Let me go!" and "Move On!". I found that interesting. The thing about Crave is that if you are of a mind to see something that bucks convention, and instead of trying to figure out what the piece is doing, you need to just let the words wash over you. At one point in the show, Deborah Hazlett's character actually has a line that says something to the effect of, "If you haven't understood any of this so far, then you DO understand." It is what you take from it or project onto it, and I have never seen anything like it.

I wish that I could see it 3 more times, one from each side of the theatre. Oh, and PS: I love the new smaller space. The Ark has a very in your face and intimate feel. The possibilities are very cool.

If you have not seen Crave because you read something somewhere or heard something negative, fine...but here is someone who saw it himself, and let me tell you this: I thought that it was thought provoking, discussion inducing, and just what a piece of theatre should be. I loved it.