So.. I liked Blasted

Maybe I am alone in this thought, but for me seeing Sarah Kane’s Blasted on stage really made my London theatre class experience. Over the past week I have thought long about the feelings seeing this play conjured within me and how despite the reactions of my fellow classmates I could find this a worthwhile experience. I thought to myself perhaps I’m psychotic and should just keep this piece of opinion to myself but then instead I wrote this blog. For me, it’s not that I enjoy seeing the pain, suffering and desperation of others, but I really believe that when you turn away from those real aspects of human life and sweep them under the carpet, they become taboo and fail to get addressed in the way that they should. When society says: “you can’t talk about this because it’s uncomfortable” people are left in an ignorant bliss.

 I think if I were looking for this play to entertain me, I would be severely disappointed.  This play obviously had a different vision and intent than the other plays I have attended in this class and elsewhere. It was not supposed to be pretty to look at or enjoyable to listen to, but it was supposed to be almost an unbearable experience—it was to shock and it was to provoke thought.  Though these things are difficult to watch, for some the acts portrayed in this play are facts of life; people do get raped, people do get put in desperate situations during war, there are selfish people, there are sick people.  Though many people do not become confronted with this in their daily lives, especially all of these together within an evening (like when seeing this play), they are not as far away as they seem. In fact, that very day on my way to the play I was confronted by a newspaper headline in the Evening Standard that to me seemed like it could be the plot of an In-Yer-Face drama. A woman murdered her autistic son by making him swallow a cup of dish detergent.  That’s crazy and it’s hard to hear, but does that mean no one should listen?

 I think that perhaps these facts are more touching when they are biographical in nature or when the audience can connect with at least one of the characters, but Sarah Kane had an artistic vision to highlight these truths without sympathy and without a settled ending. It was a powerful way to present human indecency. It was an interesting experience as an audience member to not connect or sympathize with any character in the performance. I found Ian revolting, the soldier disturbed, and Cate naïve and stupid. However, I was kept interested despite this disconnection.

This may have seemed dark, but I just wanted to give some credit to this play! I think seeing an In-Yer-Face drama was a really important part of this class.

-Rachel Samec, UCSB