Sarah Kane was one of Britain’s most important playwrights. She took her own life 26 years ago. In her short life, the young playwright published five plays that were considered difficult at the turn of the millennium. Her penultimate play, “Crave”, was restaged by Christopher Rüping for the Schauspielhaus Zürich and can now be seen at the Deutsches Theater Berlin. As always, his productions are about love. Who wouldn’t want to be held in someone’s arms? Romance has become a consumer good, successful relationships are laborious, and more and more people are looking for alternative relationship models. Is love still our only hope? This multi-award-winning production is magnificent. Christopher Rüping manages to bring desire to the stage in a way that breaks the audience’s hearts into pieces. This is partly due to the fragmentary text by Sarah Kane, which consists of symbolic snippets of words, and partly due to the performance of the five-member ensemble, including Maja Beckmann, Benjamin Lillie, Sasha Melroch and Steven Sowah. But above all, there is Wiebke Mollenhauer, whose face is filmed for almost two hours and who responds to this text with her fascinating facial expressions. The inner world of desperate lovers in search of closeness opens up. What remains is the unrequited desire for security. Every possible form of love is experienced precisely, without much pathos. Never before have fear, panic, anger, sadness, desire and warmth been so impressively reflected in a face. The voices and text fragments pelt her until she runs out of the theater and jumps into the Spree with a smile. Don’t try this at home, but be sure to watch Christopher Rüping’s play.
Text: Milena Kalojanov / Photos: Orpheas Emirzas
Deutsches Theater, Schumannstr.13a, 10117 Berlin–Mitte; map
“Crave” by Christopher Rüping. Tickets are available here.
@deutschestheaterberlin
