There are only two ways to engage with CRAVE. Either you set yourself at an appreciative distance, admire the passionate efforts of the actors and then walk out at the end as if you had just watched a well-performed string quartet, your day proceeding as normal. Or you can connect to it, and be deeply affected.

The work of Sarah Kane is back at Fringe after 4.48 Psychosis blew everyone away two years ago (myself included). This production of her other poetic, non-narrative work, CRAVE, is not quite the equal of that previous one, firstly because it doesn’t strike quite as wide a range of emotional notes, and secondly because the occasional bit of staging seems forced. Nevertheless, it is still deeply moving. The four performers (Elizabeth Hansen, Christopher Herring, Joey Long and Mary Myers) under Jon Jon Johnson’s direction are all devoted to the material and completely believable. Their clear understanding of what is going on helps carry the audience along even during sections where the actual meaning of the words gets murky, and all five deserve total praise for maintaining the balance between fearlessness and self-control.

The through-line, such as it is, has to do with the violent collision between love and self-loathing. Every one of us has either been in, or been familiar with someone else in this kind of relationship, where person A cannot accept the love of person B because person A doesn’t love his or herself. That is where the play gets its power; it presents a whirlwind of dialogues and interactions — plotless, but intimately familiar. It thus acts, in the director’s words, as a mirror, to reflect your own experiences back to you. It’s up to you whether you want to examine what is reflected, or whether you want to move aside and simply observe the actors throwing themselves about emotionally.

CRAVE is not for everyone, and anyone coming in the wrong mood could easily dismiss it all as sophomoric wailing and moaning. Anyone needing just a bit of self-examination or catharsis in their day, however, stands a good chance of finding it here.

CRAVE has 4 remaining performances, listed here. Tickets are available online.