Photo Credit: theatregigante.org
Imagine a play without a plot, characters without names, and themes that include incest, drug addiction and suicide. Now, mix in a television sitcom star.
Theatre Gigante is presenting Crave by English playwright Sarah Kane, who is known for her themes of redemptive love, sexual desire, pain and death. The play is written in an experimental form with an intense poetic lyricism.
“This is our 32nd season,” says Isabelle Kralj, Gigante’s co-artistic director. “We don’t produce mainstream plays, rather we offer thought-provoking work with a unique approach, or as we like to say, ‘Gigante Style.’”
Mark Anderson, Gigante’s other co-artistic director, describes the company’s mission. “We re-imagine existing works, such as Ibsen’s Enemy of the People, Kafka’s Metamorphosis, or Shakespeare.”
Crave debuted in 1998 under an alias, as to avoid the work being compared to Kane’s earlier work’s use of extreme and violent stage action. The pseudonym “Marie Kelvedon” was based on Kane’s middle name (Marie) and her childhood village of Kelvedon Hatch. Kane even included a fictitious biography in the program.
Though Crave is considered the “most despairing” of her five plays, Kane developed a liberated writing style that elevated her status to one of the 20th century’s most influential playwrights. The lyrics to Icelandic singer Björk's song "An Echo, a Stain," released in 2001, are based on this play.
Kane wrote this last work when she had lost “faith in love.” Kane was twice voluntarily admitted to hospitals for severe depression and committed suicide at the age of 28.
Challenging Work
Kralj explains the challenges of directing Crave, a work with no stage directions, no plot and no indications of place. “Crave is an enigmatic, darkly poetic piece that uses four individual voices that merge into one lyrical subject. With surprisingly witty dialogue, the four interlinking monologues reverberate and echo off each other, and there’s often no way to discern who is talking to whom.” The four characters, labeled A, B, C and M are not assigned sex or gender.
Saxophonist Aaron Gardner will provide musical background at the beginning and the end. Following the one-act play and intermission, Gardner will be joined by guitarist and singer Steve Peplin and bassist Sam Winternheimer for a jazz set.
So, how does one of television’s most respected sitcom stars get involved with such a serious play?
Milwaukee native Jane Kaczmarek is perhaps best known for her work as Lois Wilkerson, the mother of “Malcom in the Middle.” She played the role for 151 episodes, earning seven Emmy award nominations. She has appeared several times on Broadway and in over a dozen films.
“I’ve known Jane since high school,” says Anderson. “She is on the Theatre Gigante board and believes in this company’s unique mission. She is sincere and passionate about our work.” Kaczmarek also serves on the boards of the Pasadena Playhouse, the Pasadena Conservatory of Music and a public educational foundation.
“The first professional play I ever attended was Milwaukee Rep’s Our Town in the ’70s,” notes Kaczmarek. “It had a profound effect on me and pointed me to a career in theater.” Kaczmarek holds degrees from UW-Madison and the Yale School for Drama and has worked with such actors as Alfred Molina and fellow Wisconsin native Tony Shalhoub. Most recently, she performed the role of Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town with Deaf West Theatre, a company that employs both hearing and deaf artists. “It was an amazing experience,” says Kaczmarek.
“I’ve worked with Theatre Gigante in the past, and I loved the experience. I was not familiar with the work of Sarah Kane before Mark and Isabelle approached me to be part of this production, but I leapt at the chance!”
Crave runs March 12-15 at the Jan Serr Studio, 1925 E. Kenilworth Place.
