The Death of Sarah Kane

A short feature which looks at the brief career, and untimely death, of the talented playwright.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Sarah
• Kane
• Harold
• Pinter
• Play
• Theatre
• Blasted
• Skin
• Phaedra's
• Love
• Psychosis
• 4.48
• Cleansed
• Suicide
• Depression

[AdArmand]

my heart goes out to her father.

[BennetHamilton]

adressed to "toysrmuff" and "nnidnid"

I would be interested in a text immanent proof. If you had understood any of her insinuations or animadversions, you would have never posted such a comment. Hopefully you will be ashamed one day of what you have written.

[mvonwahlde]

@MissPersianTiger The character in that monologue also says "I am a failure." Is the character in that monologue really a failure? Did Ms. Kane intend for that character to be an autobiographical representation of herself? I'm not sure of either.

Sometimes we sell the artist's creativity short when we assume that the artist being autobiographical, rather than being creative.

Something to think about anyway.

[MrHeslopian]

@Foxglurves I believe Kane's work was autobiographical in the sense that it was inspired by her feelings, her worldview and her struggles with depression, but I don't think all of the specifics were taken directly from her life. The "fuck you" monologue I reckon was a general rage against life than a knowing attack on particular people.

[Foxglurves]

@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?

[MrHeslopian]

@Foxglurves You make a fair point, and her work was of course driven by her struggles with depression, like Sylvia Plath, but I just think it's dangerous to take lines from her creative ouevre and apply them to real life as though they make a perfect fit. Her father is no doubt a wonderful man who did his best for his children, so to demonise him based on a few words in a play doesn't sit right.

[Foxglurves]

@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.

[Foxglurves]

@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"

[MrHeslopian]

@MissPersianTiger Her work wasn't always autobiographical. I think the last words of 4.48 Psychosis were intended as a conveyance of how the narrator has finally reached the end of her rope and is railing against everyone and everything, with no rhyme or reason other than she's suffering and needs answers as to why.

[DanWagstaffe09]

@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.

[MissPersianTiger]

... but she hated her father! she said so in her last words "4.48 psychosis" -i dont understand how he can have the guts to speak out for her. :/

[TheMurePolly]

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?