in Blasted at the Royal Court 1985
Photo: Tristam Kenton
042 – Blasted, by Sarah Kane
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When Sarah Kane’s first full-length play Blasted premiered in the small upstairs theatre at the Royal Court in 1995 it was greeted by shock and outrage by critics, catapulting its 23-year old author to unexpected and unwelcome tabloid notoriety. Blasted is certainly disturbing, as it features scenes of rape, suicide, blinding and cannibalism, as well as graphic descriptions of atrocities of war.
Kane wrote only four more plays in her short life, all of which are challenging in form and content, featuring extremes of sex and violence, love and cruelty, but also raw honesty, and even glimmers of hope and beauty. In the little more than two decades since she took her own life in 1999 at the age of 28, Kane’s reputation has been defined partly in terms of the myth of the tortured artist, in the mold of Jim Morrison or Kurt Cobain, but her work has also found a singular place in the critical canon, distinctive and influential for its innovative form and its brutal vision.
I am joined in this epsiode by someone who is very well qualified to guide us through the blasted landscape of Sarah Kane’s play. Graham Saunders is the author of Love me or Kill me: Sarah Kane and the Theatre of Extremes published by Manchester University Press, as well as About Kane: the Playwright and the Work published by Faber, and the editor of Sarah Kane in Context also from Manchester University Press.
Warning: this play and therefore this episode are not for the faint-hearted. Our conversation about the play contains language and scenes that may be disturbing.
Graham Saunders
He has written a number of other books on modern British drama, including Patrick Marber’s Closer (Continuum, 2008) and British Theatre Companies 1980-1994 (Methuen, 2015). He is co-editor of Cool Britannia: Political Theatre in the 1990s (Palgrave, 2008);) and Arnold Wesker: Fragments and Visions (Intellect, 2021). His latest monograph, Elizabethan and Jacobean Reappropriation in Contemorary British Drama: ‘Upstart Crows’ was published by Palgrave in 2017. He is also co-series editor for Routledge’s Modern and Contemporary Dramatists – Stage and Screen.
Graham recommended The Writer by Ella Hickson.
The Footnotes to our episode on Blasted include observations on the sources of the title of the play, and on the writers that infuenced Kane as she wrote it.
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Douglas
067 – Red Pitch by Tyrell Williams
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Tyrell William’s award-winning, debut play Red Pitch is set on an inner-city football pitch in South London. It is a coming-of-age story, with teenage boys fighting to believe in their dreams, and to find a way up, and perhaps out, of their changing community. The play premiered at the Bush Theatre in London in February 2002, winning several awards, and is currently enjoying a sell-out revival at the Bush.
Tyrell Williams, and the show’s director, Daniel Bailey, join me to explore this joyful and poignant new play.
Photo by Helen Murray.
066 – The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh
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Martin McDonagh’s 2004 play The Pillowman is an unsettling mix of gruesome fairy tales, child abuse, and murder, overlaid with McDonagh’s signature black humour. McDonagh’s blend of extreme violence and ironic comedy divides opinion, although the popularity of the current revival of the play in London’s West End is testimony to its enduring fascination.
I am joined in this episode by Professor Eamonn Jordan, to help us come to terms with the impact and intent of McDonagh’s work.
065 – Accidental Death of an Anarchist, by Dario Fo and Franca Rame
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Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo and Franca Rame is both an hilarious farce and a biting satire. Written in 1970 as an “act of intervention” in response to the unexplained death of a prisoner in police custody in Milan, it became a huge global hit.
An acclaimed new adaptation that updates the setting and scandal to modern-day Britain is currently playing at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, and I’m delighted to be joined by its writer, Tom Basden, and the director, Daniel Raggett, to talk about their adaptation and the enduring relevance of Fo’s original.
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