I studied Sarah Kane and her plays while I was at Worcester University from 2003 until 2005. She was a very talented writer and it is time I re-read her work.
I performed part of 4.48 psychosis for my AS theatre monologue and she is honestly one of the most amazing playwrights, she wrote from within and all her work is powerful, I'd recommend 4.48 to anyone prepared to connect to her language.
+Heyitskylaq I'm currently doing the same, I don't think many people can see the true gift she has..She writes the truth and not lies which you'd mostly see in today's society! Only wish she was more known so people could embrace her work...
hallucinatory clarity is a brilliant description of her pieces, and of the way i see things sometimes, and i'm sure so do many people, it's very easy to see the world in that way... i think that's a perfect description of what she created...
This may be an unpopular opinion, but I don't believe Kane wrote because she was depressed. I think it was in spite of it; if someone truly had fallen into despair and feels no meaning for the life around them then why write a play to begin with? I certainly think there is a deeply vulnerable personal connection between her and her work (Pinter believed so too), more profound than I think most writers. But plays like Blasted went through something like 20 drafts. I'd argue that it was influenced just as much by her own experiences as it was by the horrific war crimes happening in Bosnia. 4:48 meanwhile is one of the few pieces of fiction that I can think that doesn't explore psychosis as an excuse for sequences of surrealism. The form of the play starts naturalistically and then begins to grow more ambiguous until it's unclear where the patient ends and the rest of the world begins, much like a psychotic episode is. That's seems far too eloquent (and frankly hard work) for what Micheal Billington described as a hour long suicide note. Everyone from Pinter to even her Dad in the video talked about her care for other. I think she was able to empathise profoundly through her own experiences with an acuteness I don't believe any living writer possesses. I also imagine such an existence could become mentally and physically strenuous, whatever career she chose. We're never 100% going to know what went down, but there is an alarming notion that artists were only great because of how tortured their psyche is. Rather than a commitment to craft and profound empathy despite their internal struggles. Van Gogh is looked at similarly but I loved Hannah Gadsby's view that he "wasn't great because he was mentally ill. He was great because he loved his brother."
Thank you for this. I found your point of view very insightful and I appreciate you bringing attention to the romanticization of mental illness and the disregard for the almost other-worldly effort/drive she and others needed for producing outstanding work while also battling severe mental health issues.
Sarah Kane was one of the writers branded as 'in yer face' theatre - she seems to divide opinion, but it's fair to say that she was a unique talent, a harrowing voice, but one who felt emotions deeply and wasn't afraid to provoke audiences with plays that expressed this raw emotion. An important writer, if not an extremely tragic one.
@TheMurePolly - Sarah Kane liked to push theatrical boundaries and Blasted was seen as 'the play' that introduced a new form. Kane was a poetic writer who challenged practitioners, provoked audiences and as an individual, she refused to write in a 'commercial' armchair. She arrived on the 'literary scene' during a particularly fertile period of new writing at the Royal Court. Although, the play could have gone unnoticed if it hadn't been for ALL the theatre critics arriving on the same evening.
@MrHeslopian (Sorry, I ran out of space) It wasn't just aesthetic and beautiful - it was real to her. It was something drawn out from somewhere deep inside of her, and when people commented on it in an aesthetic way, she felt that it was progressively killing her. As such, I think that the best review of the play is by Michael Billington: "How on earth do you award aesthetic points to a 75-minute suicide note?" However, I understand that that is only my interpretation, and I could be wrong.
@MrHeslopian This is just my interpretation, but I think 4.48 Psychosis says a lot about Kane's attitudes to towards the audience and theatre. She writes "this is the sickness of becoming great. This is the vital need for which I would die. To be loved. You are breaking me." And when I acted in this last month, I definitely thought these lines meant that she believed her work could only live on through her death, and that it wasn't just about people saying "oh her work was so lyrical and poetic"
She was a very disturbed person. and maybe her father has a lot to do with it. In her writing clearly, her mental state is expressed without hesitation. In reality, all this anger and distress could only turn against her own self. May God rest her soul in peace!
it is a terrible shame for such a lauded and promising playwright to pass at such a young age, but I can't seem to 'get' the meaning/importance of Blasted. could someone please elaborate on this? or, if not, elaborate on why the play struck so many as brilliant?
Lastly,it's just my opinion and I don't think I have to quote you Voltaire on that.Like I said,it was a tragic way that she died and that she was crippled with depression but I stand by what I say before and now.And I will never,ever be ashamed of what I have written.Although Sarah Kane should be.
@MrHeslopian Ah, sorry, I hadn't read MissPersianTiger's comment. I dunno, I see your point MrHeslopian, but I still disagree - she probably did put a skew on things and of course added in lots of original creativity, but I still think that 4.48 Psychosis was autobiographical. And MissPersianTiger, although it is pretty well documented that she hated her father, it's probable that he felt responsible for her suicide, and just by talking about her kindly in a news report alleviated his guilt?
Now listen son,just because I don't go to bed reading Blasted every night and singing the praises of this joke of a playwrite does not make me stupid, or fucking stupid,if you will.Firstly insinuations to war-torn Bosnia and Sarajevo in the contemporary North England setting were not just absurd,they were daft. continued.
Agreed.Although her death and the nature of it was tragic, her entire works were nothing short of sixth form pre-christmas play fodder.Possibly the most overrated writer playright ever.
Secondly,dialogue can be the most direct and explicit display of brutality, if executed right.Kane was just plain crass and boring in her use.Thirdly,'in-yer-face'was just an excuse to be lazy, nothing more and anyone attempting to intelectualise it is beyond a trivial joke themselves.Fourthly, subtlety is the small,half-invisible king of all arts and a little wouldn't have gone amiss in Kane's back catalogue.continued
![เปิดใจ "อาจารย์เบียร์ คนตื่นธรรม" อดีตเคยสุดทุกทาง ถ้าใช้หนี้หมดไปบวชแน่ l [Nickynachat]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/IxeE0xVhy08/mqdefault.jpg)
I studied Sarah Kane and her plays while I was at Worcester University from 2003 until 2005.
She was a very talented writer and it is time I re-read her work.
I performed part of 4.48 psychosis for my AS theatre monologue and she is honestly one of the most amazing playwrights, she wrote from within and all her work is powerful, I'd recommend 4.48 to anyone prepared to connect to her language.
+Heyitskylaq I'm currently doing the same, I don't think many people can see the true gift she has..She writes the truth and not lies which you'd mostly see in today's society! Only wish she was more known so people could embrace her work...
hallucinatory clarity is a brilliant description of her pieces, and of the way i see things sometimes, and i'm sure so do many people, it's very easy to see the world in that way... i think that's a perfect description of what she created...
This may be an unpopular opinion, but I don't believe Kane wrote because she was depressed. I think it was in spite of it; if someone truly had fallen into despair and feels no meaning for the life around them then why write a play to begin with? I certainly think there is a deeply vulnerable personal connection between her and her work (Pinter believed so too), more profound than I think most writers. But plays like Blasted went through something like 20 drafts. I'd argue that it was influenced just as much by her own experiences as it was by the horrific war crimes happening in Bosnia. 4:48 meanwhile is one of the few pieces of fiction that I can think that doesn't explore psychosis as an excuse for sequences of surrealism. The form of the play starts naturalistically and then begins to grow more ambiguous until it's unclear where the patient ends and the rest of the world begins, much like a psychotic episode is. That's seems far too eloquent (and frankly hard work) for what Micheal Billington described as a hour long suicide note. Everyone from Pinter to even her Dad in the video talked about her care for other. I think she was able to empathise profoundly through her own experiences with an acuteness I don't believe any living writer possesses. I also imagine such an existence could become mentally and physically strenuous, whatever career she chose. We're never 100% going to know what went down, but there is an alarming notion that artists were only great because of how tortured their psyche is. Rather than a commitment to craft and profound empathy despite their internal struggles. Van Gogh is looked at similarly but I loved Hannah Gadsby's view that he "wasn't great because he was mentally ill. He was great because he loved his brother."
Thank you for this. I found your point of view very insightful and I appreciate you bringing attention to the romanticization of mental illness and the disregard for the almost other-worldly effort/drive she and others needed for producing outstanding work while also battling severe mental health issues.
she's one of my favourite playwrights, i'm going on to study drama next year, and i cannot wait to do one of her pieces...
Sarah Kane was one of the writers branded as 'in yer face' theatre - she seems to divide opinion, but it's fair to say that she was a unique talent, a harrowing voice, but one who felt emotions deeply and wasn't afraid to provoke audiences with plays that expressed this raw emotion. An important writer, if not an extremely tragic one.
Thanks for putting this up. I love sarah kane, i'm writing about her at the moment.
tragic... read all of her plays;
think they were cries for help, she couldn't seem to find anything joyous in the world. RIP
Thank you. I did not know of Sarah Kane. Now I want to see her plays.
@TheMurePolly - Sarah Kane liked to push theatrical boundaries and Blasted was seen as 'the play' that introduced a new form. Kane was a poetic writer who challenged practitioners, provoked audiences and as an individual, she refused to write in a 'commercial' armchair. She arrived on the 'literary scene' during a particularly fertile period of new writing at the Royal Court. Although, the play could have gone unnoticed if it hadn't been for ALL the theatre critics arriving on the same evening.
@MrHeslopian (Sorry, I ran out of space) It wasn't just aesthetic and beautiful - it was real to her. It was something drawn out from somewhere deep inside of her, and when people commented on it in an aesthetic way, she felt that it was progressively killing her. As such, I think that the best review of the play is by Michael Billington: "How on earth do you award aesthetic points to a 75-minute suicide note?"
However, I understand that that is only my interpretation, and I could be wrong.
@MrHeslopian This is just my interpretation, but I think 4.48 Psychosis says a lot about Kane's attitudes to towards the audience and theatre. She writes "this is the sickness of becoming great. This is the vital need for which I would die. To be loved. You are breaking me." And when I acted in this last month, I definitely thought these lines meant that she believed her work could only live on through her death, and that it wasn't just about people saying "oh her work was so lyrical and poetic"
where is this video from?
She was a very disturbed person. and maybe her father has a lot to do with it. In her writing clearly, her mental state is expressed without hesitation. In reality, all this anger and distress could only turn against her own self. May God rest her soul in peace!
thanks. I want to see her mother, and her brother. please!!!!!
I’ve uploaded the Radio 4 documentary “Blasted: The Life and Death of Sarah Kane” here-> th-cam.com/video/wOYy-7nrLuM/w-d-xo.html
I'm doing 4.48 psychosis in 6th form, it's disturbing but rewarding! Good luck!
Sarah Kane was so talented. I've just done a review of her play Blasted on my channel. Such an enigmatic person.
It's 2021 and I'm watching this
2024 here
it is a terrible shame for such a lauded and promising playwright to pass at such a young age, but I can't seem to 'get' the meaning/importance of Blasted. could someone please elaborate on this? or, if not, elaborate on why the play struck so many as brilliant?
Oh shame, I meant playwrite.Don't be cruel, I'm only twelve!
I recommend you read Werner Schwab.
Lastly,it's just my opinion and I don't think I have to quote you Voltaire on that.Like I said,it was a tragic way that she died and that she was crippled with depression but I stand by what I say before and now.And I will never,ever be ashamed of what I have written.Although Sarah Kane should be.
@MrHeslopian Ah, sorry, I hadn't read MissPersianTiger's comment. I dunno, I see your point MrHeslopian, but I still disagree - she probably did put a skew on things and of course added in lots of original creativity, but I still think that 4.48 Psychosis was autobiographical. And MissPersianTiger, although it is pretty well documented that she hated her father, it's probable that he felt responsible for her suicide, and just by talking about her kindly in a news report alleviated his guilt?
Now listen son,just because I don't go to bed reading Blasted every night and singing the praises of this joke of a playwrite does not make me stupid, or fucking stupid,if you will.Firstly insinuations to war-torn Bosnia and Sarajevo in the contemporary North England setting were not just absurd,they were daft. continued.
Agreed.Although her death and the nature of it was tragic, her entire works were nothing short of sixth form pre-christmas play fodder.Possibly the most overrated writer playright ever.
Secondly,dialogue can be the most direct and explicit display of brutality, if executed right.Kane was just plain crass and boring in her use.Thirdly,'in-yer-face'was just an excuse to be lazy, nothing more and anyone attempting to intelectualise it is beyond a trivial joke themselves.Fourthly, subtlety is the small,half-invisible king of all arts and a little wouldn't have gone amiss in Kane's back catalogue.continued