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1995
Blasted
Blasted shook Londonīs theatre
world with critics unable to handle its violence and
energy ("a disgusting piece of filth").
James
Macdonald, the producer, says "a short run meant
Blasted was seen by not many more than 1,000 people,
making it perhaps the least seen and most talked-about
play in recent memory. Meanwhile, lying low in Brixton,
Sarah received a surprise delivery at 3pm one afternoon.
A fan letter from Harold Pinter. Had he popped down to
deliver it himself, she wondered, or was it a lackey in
shades and gloves".
In the bedroom of a hotel room Ian, an
obnoxious businessman, has Cate for the night. She is
down-to-earth and unused to luxury. Then the soldier
enters. The hotel is in a Bosnian Leeds and the events
that follow reflect the pain and suffering that Bosnia
endured. Kane uses the viewpoints of both oppressor and
victim.
Death. Not being/ you
fall asleep then you wake up His motherīs a lesbos, am I not
preferable to that/ perhaps sheīs a nice person Give us a cig/ why?/ Cause I got
a gun and you havenīt No God/ Got to be something/
Why?/ Doesnīt make sense otherwise/ Doesnīt make sense
anyway
Blasted premiered at the Royal Court Theatre
Upstairs, London on 12 January 1995. Directed by James
Macdonald with Pip Donaghy as Ian, Kate Ashfield as Cate
and Dermot Kerrigan as the soldier. A previous
version, from 1993, covered the first half of the final
version and had a student performance. Kane says
"acts of violence simply
happen in life, they don't have a dramatic build-up and
they are horrible. That is how it is in the
play". Compare the criticism of the play with
criticism of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler "a bad escape of
moral sewage-gas... the foulest passions of
humanity" (quoted in the introduction, Ibsen Plays
Two, Metheun).
For photos of Blasted click here.
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