Is it possible to judge objectively the work of a writer who died tragically young? What is known in literary criticism as the Sylvia Plath Problem applies in theatre to Sarah Kane, who between 1995 and 1999, wrote five short, shocking stage plays before taking her own life at the age of 28 while being treated for severe depression.Under the artistic directorship of Daniel Evans, the Sheffield Crucible theatre has, every two years, staged a season of plays by a contemporary dramatist. The previous choices – Michael Frayn, David Hare and Peter Gill – were all living and so the exception made for Kane, though justified by the huge popularity of her work in European theatres and among student groups, serves to underline the melancholic shadow over her work.The re-examination star