Few people realise just what a brilliant actress Sarah was. Yes, we all know she deputised for the injured Suzan Sylvester in Cleansed, but what's less well known is that in the original (English-language) production of Crave in Maastricht in late 1998 she played C throughout the run.
She was excellent by all accounts (of course) and played C very differently from Sharon. Sarah's C was a worldly-wise experienced twentysomething, carrying some sadness under the surface, and rather more 'up' for her disturbing relationship with A than Sharon's childlike C was.
We know that Sarah had tried her hand at acting early on before deciding she would rather write, but it is a great pity that she didn't make a serious go of pursuing a dual career (as a number of today's playwrights have done with some success). Had she been a regular fixture as the female lead in her plays, they would have been an even more amazing theatrical experience than they were anyway, and her star would without doubt have gone champagne supernova.
Alas, once again we are left with the two words never far from any Sarah Kane enthusiast's lips - "If only..."
Archive 3-5-2001