Finishing 2025 with a complicated story, a local theatre company is presenting a play that’s been interpreted in many ways.

Premiering at the Shadowbox Theatre (located at 103b – 1501 Howard Avenue) on Friday, December 5th, Post Productions will begin their three-weekend’s Crave. Billed as a haunting exploration of love and longing in the face of self-destruction, the emotionally raw production covers themes of loneliness, memory, alienation, desire and hope in a story that fits the theatre company’s style.

First seeing the show through an online stream in 2021, actor, director and producer Michael K. Potter was intrigued from the start.

“Fay Lynn and I] actually watched that online version twice,” he said. “After both of us watched it, we were so fascinated we wanted to see it again, so we invited [actor] Nik Prsa to come to the Shadowbox and watch it with us as well. He was in our pandemic bubble (laughs)”

Taking place in London in Christmas 1975, Crave opens with a broken family getting together for the holidays. Given their relationships with one another, it isn’t long before strong feelings of desire, trauma and longing take form in a poetic and fierce collision. It’s in this environment that audiences are brought in to assemble the aftermath of a love story bordering on obsession and despair.

Despite knowing about the show for years, Potter didn’t realize the possibilities it held until watching the production from England during the COVID-19 lockdown. While that version contained a memorable performance by Adolescence actor Erin Doherty as C, several unique interpretations also exist. Open to diverse approaches, this has resulted in cast choices such as Debbie Harry from Blondie once playing M in a New York production.

Gaining this new perspective, the director started forming ideas of how Post could stage Crave as well.

“From the first moment I saw a production of Crave, I’ve had a particular vision for it in my mind, which always involved setting it during the holidays,” said Potter. “To me, there’s something about the script that seems particularly resonant and powerful at this time of year. For example, love and the various other emotions or experiences related to it are such an important focus of the holidays, especially Christmas. People focus on the positive implications of this, but love is much more complex than that.”

Feeling that people are largely taught to view the emotion in a narrow and superficial way, Potter notes Kane instead treats it more honestly. Influenced by artists and philosophers she admired, the playwright is more concerned with getting to the truth, treating love as an attachment. It’s a principle that largely guided her other works as well.

Further illustrating this idea, each character in Crave is entangled in several relationships. With love and longing showing themselves in different forms, everyone struggles to enjoy happiness as these interactions lead to moments of joy and despair. Focused instead on dissatisfaction, love is often left unrequited, the cause of rejection or terrible choices instead.

While it doesn’t mean Crave’s characters can’t escape, doing so also comes at a cost.

“They’re in a state of longing, which is a state of neediness that involves wanting something you used to have, could have or, let’s be honest, something you might never have,” said Potter. “That’s where all the characters in Crave begin. How do they get out of that state? Is it possible? I believe Kane’s answer is ‘yes,’ but we might not like where that answer leads.”

Forgoing auditions, Post decided to approach actors they knew well or whose bodies of work were familiar to the theatre company. On top of being talented, the idea was to bring in people whose values helped to foster a successful theatre environment complete with reliability, commitment, trustworthiness, courage, compassion, respect and intelligence.

Once Potter and Lynn knew who they wanted to recruit for the production, the next step was making an effort to connect.

“Lynn and I made a shortlist of possible actors for each role,” said the producer. “Afterwards, we began to contact them and set up coffee dates where we could discuss the play and why we thought they’d be a perfect fit for certain roles. This started in the spring and continued until we had filled each one. Obviously, part of what made an actor a potential fit for any role depended on their strengths and specific character demands. With Camryn Kingsley, for example, we thought she might be a perfect fit for the role of C because she conveys such a fascinating mix of characteristics that can be interpreted as vulnerability and potential menace. I hear it in her voice. Lynn sees it in her eyes. This blend is important to capturing the complexity of C, someone who is in many ways innocent and childlike, who also demonstrates a lot of darkness and potential danger to those around her.”

With Kingsley locked in, the director envisioned casting another four to six roles aside from those of A, B, C and M, who were already characters specified in the script. Eventually, the additional cast was narrowed down to four characters named W, X, Y and Z. These extra roles were created to serve as silent conversation partners for the play’s main characters. They present themselves as other family members at the Christmas party who never respond to what’s said, often ignoring speaking actors or reacting in ways that increase feelings of loneliness and isolation. It’s an aspect that was also designed to enhance and subvert the meanings behind what different characters say.

Unfortunately, outside circumstances soon forced the theatre company to adjust its plans.

“With the exception of Kingsley and Prsa, who play Z, every single actor who committed to one of the other six roles either dropped out at some point or had to be let go,” said Potter. “Those who dropped out did so for several reasons. Some were frightened by the script and the complexity of the production. Some wanted to be part of more mainstream and happier fare. Some were facing personal difficulties that, from their perspective, would impair their ability to fully engage with the process. One actor’s partner discovered she was pregnant and due to give birth during Crave’s tech week, which is obviously a problem of a more welcome sort.”

Dealing with these changes and sometimes having even replacement actors drop out, the director ultimately cut W and X from the production. From there, Amisha Paradva was cast as Y based from her audition for Puppets in the Hands of a Malevolent God. While she didn’t get the part in that double bill, Lynn was impressed with her ability to communicate without dialogue and using only facial expressions or body language. Now, Crave will mark the actress’ debut in local theatre.

From there, other choices serendipitously continued to work in Potter’s favour.

“By the time I cut the roles of W and X from the production we had Mitch Snaden playing B, who is probably a better choice than the people we’d originally contacted for that part anyway,” said the director. “He’s excellent, fun to work with and has experience with a broad and diverse range of theatre. In early September we realized there was no one left to invite who fit the requirements to play A. He had to be at least twice as old as the actor playing C, but visibly
much younger than the actor playing B for example. So that’s how I ended up playing A. The universe just won’t let me retire!”

Lynn also filled another role out of necessity as the company realized in mid-October they’d run out of options for someone to play M. At that point, she’d been helping Potter learn his lines for a month and attended every cast gathering, so it was a natural fit.

Although rehearsals started on September 26, additional preparations began in July. With actors playing A, B, C and M coming in for about a month starting on the fall date, Prsa and Paradva would join them afterwards. This unusual approach was adopted as a result of Crave’s script being notoriously difficult to learn. As it’s often unclear who each character is speaking to at any given time or why, conversations are also fragmented, overlap with one another and start on one page before reappearing several pages later. Additionally, it has no stage directions or story built in to help orient actors and only contains dialogue.

It’s these parameters that necessitated Post’s extra work last summer to make things less chaotic.

“I put together an actor’s version of the script that interpreted Kane’s work according to my vision for this production,” said Potter about the undertaking. ” I also provided stage directions that constructed a story from beginning to end. This was done with the valuable help of Lynn, who typed up everything, added clarification and numbered lines to make it easier for actors and us as directors to refer to specific moments. That way, we could help the actors make connections.”

Preparing further, Post’s summer intern Maria Hausmann helped by talking through each script unit with Potter and Lynn. She also created blocking maps to help actors visualize where they were on stage at any given moment, along with where they needed to move.

Once completed, work with the first group of actors began. Focusing exclusively on dialogue for five weeks, this helped draw attention towards understanding and memorizing text. Discussions were held about what was going on from moment to moment, how different lines could be interpreted, what was at the core of each character and identifying various literary allusions, metaphors and symbols Kane used to influence audience perception.

Beyond this, actors played with the script in creative ways to loosen themselves up and explore differing approaches.

“Sometimes we’d rehearse the script as a western, a 1970’s British sitcom, a horror film or a melodramatic and romantic soap opera,” said Potter. “We tried all sorts of different approaches then talked about what we learned from them. The plan was to have the actors playing A, B, C, and M completely off script by the time Y and Z joined us so we could then focus on movement, reactions, physical and visual elements of the production. I’d say each actor’s understanding of the script changed many times throughout the process. I know for certain that Lynn and I didn’t feel as though we truly understood our characters until the eighth week of rehearsals.”

From the start, Potter made his interpretation of the script and lines clear while stressing they were his alone. Wanting his actors to develop their own views on the material, the cast then discussed their takeaways and learnt together: The director felt he could get everyone’s best performances by giving them the freedom to apply their intelligence, creativity and experience to each role.

Even so, it took a lot of hard work for actors to ensure they understood the material.

“The script itself doesn’t have a story, so our actor’s edition of the script added the story through stage directions and blocking,” said Potter. “Because of this, one of the challenges we faced was getting everyone to the point where they understood the emotional arc of their characters, where they begin versus where they end and the emotional waypoints reached between those two poles. I’d say we didn’t really have a handle on these emotional arcs until we were working with everyone onstage. That’s when things really started to click and meanings became revealed.”

Shadowbox Theatre also plays a crucial role in Crave’s success. Presented in an intimate space, this atmosphere is further amplified by its set being extended into the audience area. Simulating popular 1970s sunken living rooms, it ensures theatregoers experience the drama like their family members uncomfortably witnessing the toxic Christmas party firsthand.

While lighting and sound design remain simplistic, it’s also this set and costuming that inform the play’s aesthetic.

“We’re trying to make the audience feel as though they’re at a family Christmas party in 1975,” said Potter. The set, which is designed and created by Lynn, is a huge part of that. The sense of space and time is unusually particular in this production and unusually important to the play’s overall success. Of course, the costumes need to be period appropriate as well as character appropriate to pull off the experience of really being in the mid-1970s. The cast basically had free rein to come up with their own costuming and hairstyles to capture the look of the era. So far, they’re definitely headed in the right direction.”

Presented by Post Productions at the Shadowbox Theatre, Sarah Kane’s Crave will be performed on December 5th, 6th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 18th, 19th and 20th. Showtimes for all performances begin at 8 p.m. with doors opening at 7:30. Admission is $20 for December 5 and 6, $25 for December 11th, 12th and 13th, while shows on December 18th, 19th, and 20th are $30 each. Tickets can be purchased online or at the door if seats remain (cash, debit and credit cards accepted).

Although it’s counter to traditional holiday fare, Potter still hopes Crave connects in a different way.

“As with all of our productions, I hope that audiences leave feeling emotionally exhausted, brimming with ideas and questions they want to discuss with others,” he said. “Crave presents such a unique experience that I really hope it opens up the audience even more than usual to what theatre can be and what it can do.”

For more information about Post Productions, including Crave and their upcoming schedule, those interested can visit their official website.