with Dr Tomas Elliott, Dr Chloe Yale Pinto and Rachel Orme
Content Information: sexual violence, actual violence, racism, cannibalism, defecation, swearing and war.
Sarah Kane’s Blasted sparked outrage amongst critics and theatre-goers when it was first performed in 1995. Join me, Dr Thomas Elliott, Dr Chloe Pinto and creative writing graduate Rachel Orme as we talk about what exactly is being ‘blasted’. The play’s controversy revolves around Kane’s relentless, and almost illogical, sequences of sexual and bloody violence.
Blasted follows Kate, a young woman from the South of England, and Ian, a racist and misogynist tabloid journalist, as they reunite in a luxury hotel room in Leeds. Ian insults, manipulates and rapes Kate and by the morning, their stay is already a violent and disturbing one, but the arrival of a soldier brings with it the horrors and justices of a warzone. As Kate disappears into the ravaged city, Ian is raped and blinded by the soldier, and the play descends into jagged fragments of despair. Blasted is a prime example, and a leading pillar of, the 1990’s genre of In Yer Face theatre, a confrontational style which aims to unsettle rather than entertain.
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