The Wonderfully Weird World of Sarah Kane's Blasted

Hi everyone, today's blog, as the title suggests, is about my trip to see Sarah Kane's Blasted at The Sheffield Crucible. As a former drama student I'd studied this play in my second year at university and remember being completely appalled by it. However, it had, also, fascinated me and I ended up doing quite a bit of research into it so as to try and understand the meaning. This meant that when I saw it was going to be on at The Crucible I just had to go and see it.

Before I talk about this specific production, let me give you a little bit of history about the play and a little bit of the story. I know I usually try and stay away from writing too much about what a play or musical is usually about but, I feel, that with Blasted, it is probably better to understand and have read it before watching it as it means that you can truly admire where it is coming from. However, if you wish to keep the shock factor (which was the only part I felt was missing from the production, but was probably to do with how much I'd researched the play) then skip the next two paragraphs :)

The story of Blasted focuses on Cate (21 years old) and Ian (45 years old), their relationship and what happens when they spend a night together in an expensive hotel room in Leeds. Over the course of the evening, Cate has an epileptic fit during which Ian rapes her. It is thought to be this action that causes the play to blow apart...or get blasted. Later, Cate goes to the bathroom to clean herself up during which time a soldier enters and it is clear from his speech that a war is now going on outside as he describes, in graphic detail, what happened to his girlfriend and what he has done to the women he has captured. He then proceeds to rape Ian, eat his eyes and then kills himself. Cate then re-emerges with a baby that she claims a women has given to her to look after because of the war that is going on outside. The baby later dies and Cate buries it before going out to find some food because she is hungry. During this period we see Ian's accent into madness as we watch him masturbating, strangling himself with his bare hands, shitting and trying to clean it up with newspaper, laughing hysterically, having a nightmare, crying bloody tears and hugging the soldier's body for comfort, lying very still and weak with hunger, tearing up the floor where the baby is buried and eating the baby before, finally, dying with relief. Cate then reappears with blood all over her legs and the play finishes with Ian coming back to life and Cate feeding him the food she has found.

So that's the craziness of the plot, but what does it mean. Well to the first critics who saw it, not a lot as the majority thought that it was a play with no meaning other than to shock and scar an audience. Nevertheless, as time has gone on Blasted has become a much loved play by dramatists and lovers of contemporary theatre...and when you actually stop, look and get past the shocking elements it has quite a few messages to offer. So as not to bombard you, I'll just give you the three most prominent ones. Firstly, Blasted appears to be saying that actions have consequences as the devastation seems to happen after Ian has raped Cate and during the rest of the play it is Ian who appears to undergo horrific suffering. The next message would seem to be that war can happen to anyone, at any time and in any place as the war that is taking place outside invades the expensive hotel room where Ian and Cate are staying forcing them to get involved whether they wanted to or not. Finally, and probably most prominently, is the thought of: how far would you go? During the play the soldier is desperate enough for food that he eats Ian's eyes, Ian is desperate enough for food that he eats the baby and Cate is desperate enough for food that it appears that she has practically sold herself to get something to eat (suggested by the blood on her legs at the end)...all this surmounts to the question that if you were starving or desperately wanted something, how far would you go to get it? Which, thus, raises the question what causes the line between civilised human being and primal animal?

Right for those who wanted to miss the plot details you can tune back in now! To start with, I thought this production was very good and was staged in a very clever way as to begin with the stage looked like an ordinary hotel room, however, was easily adapted when the play was 'blasted' to create the devastation and worked very well with what the play demanded of it. I, also, though how realistic the set was, particularly the fact that the hotel room door opened onto a realistic looking corridor area. I think this impressed me so much as many sets don't often pay attention to these little details as they don't appear for more than a few moments, so the fact that these details were focused so heavily on in Blasted was quite a refreshing change.

The actual depiction of the play I thought was done very well but was a little disappointed with how un-shocking it was. I don't know whether this was because I knew the play so well or whether it was because some of the shocking details had been taken out. One such instance was that when Ian supposed rape Cate both remained fully clothed. I know that an actual sexual act couldn't be carried out, however, would have hoped for a little more imagination in how to make this appear more realistic. There were other instances of a similar nature that I felt had been tamed down a little. However, I am still unsure as to whether this was because Jessica Barden who played Cate appeared to be quite young. Now I don't know exactly what her age was (and hopefully I'm not insulting her by saying this) but to me she looked about 14 years old. This could explain why this version of Blasted was tamer than what the script suggests as there are certain legalities concerning actors and actress who are under 18. I can, also, see why (if Jessica was indeed this young) someone this young was chosen for the role as it added an interesting dimension due to the fact the play now seemed to comment on the whole under age girls being seduced by much older men; which is a prominent feature in the news at the moment. 

As for the actors, themselves, I thought they were all superb and felt with this very challenging play extremely well. Jessica Barden (Cate) got the immaturity and strength of character just right, with her character being quite weak at the beginning but developing an inner strength as the play progressed. She was, also, very believable in acting the epileptic fits Cate had. Martin Marquez, who played Ian, was very good, as well; the was a good, solid strength to his portrayal, however, he allowed for Ian's insecurities to shine through. How ability to make the audience like Ian yet, also, be scared of him was rather special and suited the rises and falls in tone of Blasted. Finally, Mark Stanley gave a splendid portrayal of the soldier and his desperations. It was clear from his depiction that the soldier had lived through many horrors and that it was these that were causing him to behave in the manner he was. 

Overall, I thought this was a very good production of Blasted and was very pleased I saw it. Although I felt it was a little tame I can see that there were probably good reasons for doing this, in addition to the fact that the tame-ness could mean that the play was open to someone who hadn't heard of Sarah Kane before and, thus, gently induct them into her work rather than throwing them in to drown.

From left to right

Top: Martin Marquez (Ian) / Jessica Barden (Cate) / Mark Stanley (Soldier)

Botton: The Crucible Theatre - Laughter by Harold Pinter / Programme and Tickets

I strongly recommend anyone who is looking at becoming a drama student, already is one or just wants to watch something a little bit different and out there to go a see this. This current production is running at The Sheffield Crucible until the 21st February so if you have a spare moment please pop and see it. And if you want to ask me any further questions about it please tweet me at @GreenGirlsRox...you can, also, follow this blog by clicking the button on the top right of the page and follow my Instagram as well where I normally post pics of the shows I'm seeing.

Love you all

Kat

xx