My Love/Hate Relationship with Blasted

            After seeing Blasted it seemed that most people were incredibly disgusted, shocked, and horrified by what was being performed on stage.  Initially I shared that same reaction with most of my peers because the point of the performance was to feel that way afterwards, no one could have possibly walked out of that theatre feeling hopeful about the human race. After the play I was mad that I had spent almost two hours watching horrific acts being committed in front of my eyes and I couldn’t even imagine why anyone would want to applaud such a repulsive play.  I found it nearly impossible to get over what I had just seen and I hated feeling like Sarah Kane had just completely turned my world upside down.

 However, after giving more thought to what Sarah Kane was trying to say I now feel differently about Blasted.  I think it’s incredibly easy to hate Blasted, but in order to appreciate the play in some way I had to really consider why Sarah Kane created the play in the first place.  At first I thought she created it because she must have been psychotic, but I know there has to be more to it than that.  She had an extremely radical point of view about how theatre should be performed and she wasn’t scared of shocking people. She knew that things had to be changed and there was so much in theatre that wasn’t being talked about.  I have a lot of respect for Sarah Kane because I can’t even imagine how many people hated her after seeing this play and she still continued to create shocking In Yer Face dramas because she had so many important things to say to the world.  Furthermore, I have a lot of respect for the actors in Blasted because they must have been just as disgusted as the audience was when they first read the script, yet they convincingly portrayed actions that one would never expect to see performed on stage.  A lot of the violence and horror in the play might have seemed unnecessary, but it needed to be there or the momentum of the play would have died.  It needed to be continually more shocking and right when you think things will slow down a little bit, something even more shocking than before happens. Many things were done very creatively and the lighting especially played a significant role in how certain things were shown, such as when Ian ripped off parts of a dead baby’s leg and ate its remains.

I have never wanted to leave a play more in my life, but in the end I’m glad that I saw Blasted because it made me open my eyes to a lot of things that I had never thought about before.  The violence and horror portrayed in the play is sadly the reality of many people in this world.  It is also a representation of how animalistic people can become as a result of the deprivation of basic necessities, such as food, water, shelter, and even love. To many of us it may seem too out there and exaggerated and it is almost impossible to wrap your brain around what you witness during the play.  However, it is imperative that people who see this play take a step back from all the chaos and put Sarah Kane’s messages into a larger context and consider the purpose of the contents of the play instead of dismissing them based on their repulsive qualities. 

Lindsey Amos

UCSC