The Catastrophic Theatre presents the Regional Premiere of
Sarah Kane’s CLEANSED
“LOVE ME OR KILL ME”
In her brief boundary breaking career, Sarah Kane’s work prompted the term “a theatre of extremes,” yet CLEANSED comes soaked through with hope. Explosively aching, hauntingly poetic, and disarmingly tender, Kane delivers a fever-dream fable of unimaginable brutality and miraculous beauty.
In a former university, society’s “undesirables” are subjected to a series of experiments designed to test the limits of love on the battlefield of the human body.
Given our country’s immediate threat to the bodies and lives of those of us who look, live, or love beyond the confines of conservative ‘norms,’ 26 years after it was written, CLEANSED feels nightmarishly prescient. More than a play, in 2024’s America, CLEANSED feels like a cause.
“Once you have perceived that life is very cruel, the only response is to live with as much humanity, humor and freedom as you can.”
– Sarah Kane
The regional premiere of CLEANSED is co-directed by core artist T Lavois Thiebaud and founding artistic director Jason Nodler, reuniting the creative team behind Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis which The Houston Press called “an imaginative bulldozer of a production.”
The production features choreography by Adam Castan͂eda and set design by Afsaneh Aayani. James Templeton serves as sound, special effects and video designer as well as composer. Lighting design provided by Hudson Davis, properties design by Lauren Davis and costumes by Juan Saracay. We’re thrilled to collaborate with the sculpture group, Moon Papas Art for set construction.
The cast includes Raymond Compton, Bryan Kaplún, Ruben Ramires Da Silva, T Lavois Thiebaud, Chuck Vaughn, Clarity Welch, Abraham Zeus Zapata and Walt Zipprian with musicians Sarah Moessner and James Templeton.
No one under 16 years of age admitted.