4.48 PSYCHOSIS/CRAVE, Crucible Studio, Sheffield, 12/16 March 2015

The Sarah Kane season at Sheffield Theatres continues with alternating performances in the Crucible Studio of short plays Crave and 4.48 Psychosis. They share a production team (led by director Charlotte Gwinner and designer Signe Beckmann), theatre space and three cast members (Pearl Chanda, Rakie Ayola and Tom Mothersdale - Christopher Fulford joins the ensemble in Crave). The plays can be experienced in isolation but they also make a successful pairing if you are able to do alternate nights (or a matinee and evening performance on Saturday).

The two plays are connected by several common themes and characteristics: overlapping narratives; a distinct lack of props/scenery; an exploration of human desires, cravings and reactions; questions about God, relationships, madness, sex, abuse and institutional interventions. They each demand a great deal from performers in terms of physical and emotional expression and in learning meticulously crafted dialogue.

Crave, in particular, demonstrates Kane's gift with language, the four characters' narratives interweaving seamlessly in ways that enable the audience to imagine a range of possibilities about the connectedness and coincidences between their experiences.

4.48 Psychosis has some similar moments of interlap although more clearly telling different parts of the same story. The performances here really sell it - they bring to life the visceral nature of Kane's work with all three actors embodying the emotions fully and bringing out experiences that may resonate in different ways with most of us.

The wide-ranging emotions in Crave come through, too, primarily through facial expressions. Whereas 4.48 Psychosis uses the whole theatre space, Crave is confined. The staging, with the performers in a line, helps emphasise the connections between the narratives and emphasis on the dialogue, but it doesn't always aid audiences and in some positions in the theatre would be hard to see clearly - there were a few straining necks in the audience.

Whilst Crave is probably the stronger of the two plays, each demonstrates Kane's talent and use of punctuation and pronunciation to beautiful and devastating effect. Neither is an easy watch, albeit more for thematic reasons than the in-yer-face shocks of Blasted, but both are a strong testament to Sarah Kane's talent as well as a great example of the interplay between performance and dialogue.

Crave and 4.48 Psychosis play at the Crucible Studio, Sheffield, until Sat 21 March.

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