Howard Barker

Author of Victory and Scenes from an Execution. His work is often called the Theatre of Catastrophe. Kane acted in his play Victory. Born 1946 in Dulwich, Great Britain.

Edward Bond

Bond's works include Saved which was savaged in the same way as Kane's work would be attacked by critics. Other works include Lear, Restoration and The War Plays. Bond stood up for Kane when she was under attack.  On Saved Bond says "Clearly the stoning to death of a baby in a London park is a typical English understatement.  Compared to the ´strategic´ bombing of cities it is a negligible atrocity".

Caryl Churchill

A leading playwright with major critical and commercial successes such as Top Girls and Serious Money. Works such as The Skriker, Mouthful of Birds and Far Away are highly experimental and highly gifted. Kane directed a version of Top Girls. Born 1938 in London, she moved to Canada as a child, then returned to Britain. She started with radio plays.

Martin Crimp

Author of Attempts on Her Life, which Sarah Kane admired. His other work includes The Country which featured Juliet Stevenson, a translation of Ionesco´s The Chairs and Moliere´s Misanthrope. His works are regularly performed at the Royal Court theatre. Born 1956.

"The treatment was wild, children. It could take place at any time of the day or night. In any part of the city. In any part of her body. Her body became the city. The doctor learned how to unfold her - like a map. Until one day the bright young girl decided the treatment would have to end - because the more medicine she took, the more medicine she craved - and besides, she was leaving the country."

David Greig

Sarah Kane's flatmate for a period. He provides the introduction for The Complete Works. His own plays include Casanova, Victoria and his Bosnian refugee play Europe. He won the John Whiting award for New Theatre Writing in 2000. Born in Edinburgh in 1972 and studied at Bristol University. He co-founded the Scottish theatre company Suspect Culture.

Joanna Laurens

Her first play The Three Birds earned her the most promising playwright award. She was a student, at Queens University Belfast, when it was staged. Her next plays were Five Gold Rings and the short Poor Beck.

Joan Littlewood

Author of the musical Oh What a Lovely War. Born 1914, in 1934 she helped set up the Theatre of Action and in 1945 set up the Theatre Workshop. Kane directed a version of Oh What a Lovely War.

Clare McIntyre

Author of Low Level Panic, The Thickness of Skin as well as an adaptation of The Changeling. Kane directed a version of Low Level Panic. She has played minor roles in films such as A Fish Called Wanda and Plenty.

"The thing that's very rewarding is when you've written something and you go and see it performed and the audience engages with it and they're full of it and they want to talk about it and it's obviously making them think".  Quite from Rage and Reason by Heidi Stephenson and Natasha Langridge.

Harold Pinter

A major British dramatist. Writer of plays such as Betrayal, The Homecoming and later works such as Mountain Language and No Mans Land. He has also written film scripts including The Servant, The French Lieutenants Woman and The Comfort of Strangers. He recognised Kane's ability immediately and supported her when she was being heavily attacked by the press. His play Ashes to Ashes has some similarities with Blasted. Born 1930, he went to the same school as Steven Berkoff, and is marred to writer Lady Antonia Fraser.  Photo by Jill Furmanovsky from cover of Ashes to Ashes.

Rebecca Prichard

Author of Yard Gal, for which she won the "most promising playwright" award.

Mark Ravenhill

Ravenhill´s Shopping and F*cking was produced in the Royal Court soon after Kane's Blasted. Born in Sussex in 1966.

Jeremy Wheeler

Author of Mad which influenced Sarah Kane "the only piece of theatre to have changed my life".

Roland Barthes

Barthes' A Lovers Discourse with the short snippets of scenes influenced Sarah Kane.