Blasted.

Audiences sitting in the Lyric Hammersmith during Sean Holmes’ 2010 production of Blasted were met with the very best of what in-yer-face drama has to offer. Danny Webb, playing the chauvinistic, homophobic, racist journalist named Ian, delivered explosive dialogue containing nearly every expletive in the book.  Cate, played by Lydia Wilson, is the focal point of an onslaught of humiliation and abuse throughout the play. Rape, war, and cannibalism plague the audience for an hour and a half. More often than not, I found myself cringing as another disconcerting scene took place on stage.

Sarah Kane’s Blasted premiered at the Royal Court in 1995 and was met with a wave of controversy. Theatre critics and audiences left theatres in disgust after witnessing intense scenes featuring violence and, oftentimes, rape.  Most audiences had never been assaulted with the drama of confrontation that Sarah Kane and her contemporaries began to produce in the late twentieth century. It was lambasted as disgusting and immoral in nearly all of the London dailies. Over the years, in-yer-face dramatists like Kane have been increasingly accepted and acclaimed and their work has been produced in a variety of fringe venues.  I can understand why it took theatre critics so long to accept plays like Blasted because I had mixed emotions about the revival myself.

Initially, I was cringing and making exclamations about how gruesome and horrendous several of the scenes were, but eventually I began to contemplate what response playwright Sarah Kane was trying to elicit from audiences. In-yer-face drama is supposed to unsettle and shock audiences while at the same time provide a platform for social and political commentary. After realizing this, I began to dissect the topics addressed in the play. Sure, I was still shell-shocked from the production, but at least I was thinking about pertinent social issues such as violence and war, right? Kane presents a unique portrayal about the present state of human affairs and society’s preoccupation with war and violence. She takes the concept of war, which seems distant to many, and puts the audience in direct contact with it. She literally puts war in the characters’ backyards. This forces audiences to consider the atrocities and consequences of war—a topic that will always be relevant.

My experience with Sarah Kane’s Blasted was a bit of a roller coaster. I went from wanting to storm out of the theatre in disgust to believing that Kane is a theatrical treasure with the ability to force audiences to consider significant social concerns. In-yer-face dramas are both intense and thought provoking. I know that this will not be my last encounter with this theatrical genre.

Ashley Hopwood, UCSC