Post Productions has mounted a production of Sarah Kane's notoriously difficult Crave that would likely earn the late playwright's approval. Running through December 20 at Windsor's intimate Shadowbox Theatre, director Michael K. Potter and his ensemble have crafted an emotionally devastating experience that honours Kane's poetic brutality while making bold staging choices that amplify the text's inherent chaos.
The production opens audiences immediately into a 1975 Christmas gathering where a fractured family collides in waves of desire, trauma and longing. Potter's decision to set Kane's abstract work in this specific time and place proves inspired—the period detail grounds the swirling emotional tempest while the holiday setting sharpens the play's exploration of love's darker territories. The sunken living room set, designed by Fay Lynn and extending into the audience area, forces theatregoers into uncomfortable proximity with the unfolding dysfunction.
Kane's script presents formidable challenges for any company. With overlapping dialogue, fragmented conversations and zero stage directions, Crave reads more like experimental poetry than traditional drama. Post's actors—Camryn Kingsley as C, Potter as A, Mitch Snaden as B, and Lynn as M—have clearly done the intensive work required to internalize Kane's rhythms. Their performances demonstrate deep understanding of characters caught in cycles of neediness and despair.
The production's most striking element is its deliberate embrace of disorientation. Characters move erratically across the stage in patterns that feel almost ADHD-driven, creating visual chaos that mirrors the fragmented psychology of Kane's text. This physical restlessness, combined with the overlapping dialogue, generates an atmosphere of sustained anxiety that rarely lets audiences catch their breath. It's deeply disturbing work that Potter and his cast execute with precision.
Kingsley's portrayal of C captures the character's unsettling duality—childlike vulnerability mixed with potential menace. Her work anchors the production's emotional centre while remaining deliberately opaque about motivations and histories. Snaden brings necessary weight to B's desperation, while Potter's A radiates quiet devastation. Lynn's late addition to the cast as M proves no liability; she inhabits the role with the authority of someone who knows this material intimately.
Potter's addition of silent characters Y and Z (played by Amisha Paradva and Nik Prsa) enhances the production's exploration of isolation. These non-speaking family members react or don't react to the main characters in ways that deepen their loneliness, creating tableaux of emotional disconnect that feel painfully authentic. The choice to cut originally planned characters W and X ultimately serves the production's focus.
The technical elements remain appropriately sparse. Simple lighting and sound design keep attention on the actors and text, while the period-accurate costuming and set dressing establish the 1970s milieu without overwhelming Kane's language. The Shadowbox's intimate space becomes crucial—there's nowhere to hide from the raw emotions on display, and the proximity forces audiences into the role of uncomfortable witnesses.
This is not holiday entertainment for those seeking comfort or cheer. Post Productions has created something more valuable—a production that respects Kane's uncompromising vision while finding fresh theatrical language to express her ideas about love as attachment, longing as trap, and the costs of escaping destructive patterns. It's emotionally exhausting work that demonstrates local theatre's capacity to tackle material most companies wouldn't touch. Kane, who died tragically young, would recognize her voice in this mounting.
Tickets for the final few performances on Dec. 18, 19 and 20 at The Shadowbox Theatre in Windsor are available online or at the door.
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