Crave

Catastrophic Theatre’s Crave consists of four terrific actors in peak form, seated throughout in four chairs, speaking the remarkable lines of Sarah Kane, contemporary alternative theatre’s pre-eminent poet of despair, directed with illuminating brilliance by Jason Nodler. … The result is one of the most exciting theatrical events you’ll experience all year. No hype, flying effects or gazillion-dollar budget required. 

The four actors make each role distinctive and detailed, every line spontaneous and authentic. Boone radiates a forlorn grace and wry resignation. Carter combines biting wit and bitterness, anxiety and futile fury, to great effect. Greg Dean is a tower of burnt-out rage and desperation, intensity dissolving into ineffectuality. Johnson brings unique edge to her complex evocations of sarcasm, pain, despair and hysteria.

Nodler has outdone himself. His staging is a crash course in body language, getting maximum emotional impact from the subtlest tilt of the head or crossing of arms. Nodler has conducted this quartet for voices masterfully, perfectly calibrating its rhythms and dynamics into one long movement. You won’t believe the power Nodler and his actors generate with one virtuosic sequence of rapid-fire “Yeses” and “Nos,” followed by sequential, primal screams — constituting the play’s riveting climax.