Blasted--definitely "in-yer-face"

It’s hard to articulate the exact thoughts and feelings going through my head during Sean Holme’s production of Blasted.  Bombarded with shocking and explicit scenes, nothing was taboo for this production.  I knew from class that this play would be unlike anything we had probably seen preformed on stage before—and it was true. The content was disturbing yet, at the same time, causes your eyes to be glued to the stage in anticipation for what may come next.

The plot of Blasted centered around a seedy hotel room in which the characters are confronted with their issues, fears and the “war” that is going on around them. The entirety of the play was situated in the hotel room and seemed to change and deteriorate in sync with the volatility of the character’s relationships and situations.  At first, the room appears to bear the look of a typical and unassuming lower-budget hotel, yet by the end of the play it is practically unrecognizable—due to an explosion—and more so resembles a post-apocalyptic wasteland than hotel room. Similarly, as the audience is introduced to the characters, we are progressively introduced to their insecurities and eradicate behavior but by the end, these same characters are reduced to such desperate and pathetic states it is difficult to imagine that they could have changed so radically. In particular, the character of Ian continues to sink lower and lower throughout the play, first with his coughing, then drinking and, to the extreme, by the end of the play he becomes cannibalistic.  While a war rages outside the hotel, the characters are waging war with themselves, each other, and the situations that they enter or those that are forced upon them.

Blasted portrayed the confusion, drama and horror of it all on stage with such skill that though, at times, shocked senseless by what I saw, I was very impressed.  The play only contained three characters, but this was in no way three too few. The actors so embodied their characters and gave them such passion, that it was not until the end that I realized there had only been these three actors. Another thing I found impressive was the openness of the stage. From where I sat on the very edge of the theatre, I was surprised to be able to see everything going on onstage so clearly and unobstructed by set props or positioning.  I felt that this allowed me to become more immersed in the play, because there were no distractions nor pulls back into reality—it was only this world that Sarah Kane had created. Admittedly, walking out of the play I was not sure I had liked it but I have to appreciate the warped confusion and mayhem that Kane has created and the interesting use of silence and the unsaid which particularly hit me. This was definitely “in-yer-face” drama and an experience I shall never forget.

Camille Brake

 UCI