BBBLasted

Sarah Kane’s “Blasted” definitely taught me to expect the unexpected from her. I know that I was repulsed from watching that play, but I also oddly enjoyed it. It was something very radical and explicit, especially for someone who has been sheltered from anything that exposes the crude nature of what humans could do to each other. I also both appreciated the nudity in the show as well as disliked it. I enjoyed it because it was not something I was prepared for or expected and I liked how shocking it was for everyone to see the old man’s real penis flashed. However, because it was an old man’s penis flashing, I thought it was distasteful. There was also just so much unnecessary sex and masturbation in the play where I think it brought down the genius of the play instead of enhancing it. I am not sure if there are many plays like this in America, but I have not heard of any. It seems that the British are more accepting of nudity on stage as well as having scenes of cannibalism and rape. If this play were to be shown in America, I think it would definitely be getting much negative criticism and possibly even be censored. Also, I do not feel that Ian deserved to be raped by the soldier even though he raped Cate.  No one deserves to be tortured and Ian’s character had so much agony towards the end of the play to where he was going mad and wanted to die already instead of living the way he was—in pain and with no eyes... One scene that I really appreciated was when the baby died. It showed how someone so young and innocent could just die in a war without warning and there is almost nothing you can do sometimes to help it. This showed the cruelty of war and humankind just by the death of an innocent baby. Another scene, which depicted another side of humanity, was when Ian ate the dead baby. This showed the savageness of humanity when there is chaos and when one feels without hope. Overall, I enjoyed the play and how it was able to show the sides of humanity that are not seen often in the media. I respected Sarah Kane for not sugar coating the play in order for the audience to get repulsed and even angry. This play showed many emotions that are often hidden in humans and I am glad that we can finally get a glimpse of what some aspects of the world really are like in order to get a better understanding of how some things happen and for why there are sometimes no answers to other things that happen.   

-Christine Luu, UCLA (cluu17@ucla.edu)