Theatrical lecture Module
“BLASTED”
by Sarah Kane
“Blasted”
was written by Sarah Kane in . This
play was first presented at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs,
In
this play there are three characters: Ian, Cate and a Soldier. As we can
confirm in the text of the play, Ian is like a murderer, because at the
beginning of the play when they (Ian and Cate) arrived to the hotel, he shows a
gun, a revolver. He wants to have relations with Cate, but she does not want to.
I think he is hiding from someone. He is very vulgar speaking: “Kate you’re stupid”. You’re never going to
get a job” (page 8).he drinks. She is a good person as we can see in this
example on page 55: Ian: “What you doing?”, Cate: “Praying.
Just in case”.
And he helps Ian to eat something. The soldier is very violent and aggressive
as we can see during his appearance. He went to the hotel’s room to kill him.
Everything
starts in a expensive hotel’s room. Ian and Cate enter
in it. Ian wants something with Cate, but he starts to criticize her about her
appearance, her clothes, her job, etc. When Cate becomes nervous she stammers:
“I t- t- t- t- t- t- t- told you. I
really like you but I c- c- c- c- can´t do this.” (page
13). Ian loves Cate but she does not love him. A soldier enters the room, Cate goes in the bathroom and does not exit. The
soldier enters and starts to inspect the room, he finds Cate’s knickers and
then he starts to look for her, but he does not find her. The soldier eats all
that is in the room. Cate returns with a baby. The baby dies and Cate buries
him. She goes to look for food for Ian but when she returns Ian has eaten the
baby. Cate gives him what she has found and he thanks her.
The
space is very clear, the hotel’s room. During the whole play the space does not
change. It is the same room as the writer indicates in the firsts
lines of the play, a room with a double bed, a mini-bar, a telephone, a large
bouquet of flowers and two doors. It seems that the play is long in duration.
It should be many days.
The
language is very similar to the language in another Sarah Kane’s play,
“Phaedra’s Love”. This language is characterized by vulgar utterances, and
simple sentences. Ian and the Soldier talk with this language, this vulgar
language, including sentences like: Soldier: “Going to fuck you.” or “Kill
you then”. The kind of utterances that are used obscenely.
I
think that this play shares some features with “Phaedra’s Love” because the
language is very similar, the way some characters communicate. The plot is
interesting but difficult to understand. I do not like it so much because there
is another story within this story, that is to say, why the soldier enters
their room. I do not understandr why. Sara Kane’s play here is more ambiguous
than “Phaedra’s Love” from my point of view. It can have more than one
interpretation. I am not turned away by this play, I read some parts more than
once, but I still do not understand the origin of some things such as the intervention
of the soldier.