Subject: # 14227 Teatro Inglés Siglos XIX y XX Grupo A

Author: Sarah Kane

Play: Blasted

Subtitle: N/A

Publisher: N/A

This play was first performed in 1995 at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, in London.

Ian, one of the three characters, is a sex-addict who does not worry about his health. He has a gun and has no problem in killing someone. This very profile seems not to be opposite his protective behaviour towards Cate, with whom he is in love. We could deduce his love for Cate is based on, among other things, his viewing in her what he does not have and may be missing: her innocence. We can see his lack of innocence in his being a killer. However, these features, together with his smoking and his alcoholism, make his relationship with Cate much difficult. She, a young girl who still sucks her thumb, doesn’t want to grow up and still feels much wiser in some aspects than Ian. One can see two worlds are crashing in this play at the many times Cate stutters, because her not grown up soul can’t stand the pressures of an hostile word like Ian’s. Finally, the soldier, despite that he has not an important role in the play, he serves to show the public the horrors human can do.

The plot of the play is not of much importance, the more important things are the messages given during the story. This play is about a couple which seems to have recently started again, they are passing the weekend in an hotel, and then Ian reveals Cate his other job, she leaves him and that’s when a soldier comes in, which will set the beginning of the end, by damaging him in a way that will drive him to the death. The play manages to show a horrific and pessimist point of view of the world, but putting the story in a belic background, both by one of the characters and the world where they live.

Regarding the time, the play is divided in four parts, each one is a different season and we can see some of the features of each season in its corresponding part. At the beginning, all goes easily, everything flows, there is no problem, like the spring. At the summer, everything is much more intense (Ian and Cate have an intercourse), it is the final part of the sunny and happy days of the year (while having sex, Ian reveals the truth and everything turns darker, sadder), and it lets autumn and the slow death come in (the soldier appears before the end of this part). After this, the autumn comes, leaves fall and things start to get worse: the hotel has been blasted, Ian is in danger because of the soldier, and it ends even worse: the soldier has eaten Ian’s eyes and now he’s blind. With the winter comes the death, death is present from the beginning until the end of the fourth scene, it starts with the death of the soldier, continues with the baby’s life termination and ends with Ian’s death.