Description:
A student edition of Sarah Kane's seminal play with its uncompromising depiction of rape, torture and violence in a society at war with itself. The Introduction
includes a scene-by-scene summary, a detailed commentary on the
dramatic, social and political context, and on the themes, characters and
language.
Brief description: Jenny Stevens was an Associate Lecturer for the Open University and currently combines educational consultancy work with teaching and writing. She is the co-author with Pamela Bickley of Essential Shakespeare: The Arden Guide to Text and Interpretation (2013) and Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama: Text and Performance (2016).
Review Quotes:
"Sarah Kane's first play was hugely controversial when staged at the Royal Court in 1995 and, if the intervening years have diminished its shock value a little, it remains a deeply divisive piece about the reality of violence, a sensory onslaught will prompt walkouts but also inspire epiphanies." --Henry Hitchings, Evening Standard (London), 29.10.10
"Blasted is undoubtedly a landmark of modern theatre, its moral force at once uncanny and explosive." --Henry Hitchings, Evening Standard (London), 29.10.10 "Kane's play is wild, but artful too." --Susannah Clapp, Observer, 31.10.10 "this is a play of exceptional power and prescience." --Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 1.11.10 "now rightly regarded as a milestone in British theatre." --Paul Callan, Daily Express, 5.11.10 "Twenty years after it opened to critical incomprehension and outrage, there's no way that Sarah Kane's Blasted can be dismissed as a naive shocker. It's far too smartly crafted for that. The play wears its magpie borrowings on its sleeve - from Brecht to Beckett to Pinter - and still rings loudly with the clarity of Kane's own bell-like Cassandra voice." --Guardian "Blasted emerges yet again as a devastating achievement, a play of furious passion and thrilling theatrical audacity . . . a landmark play of undiminished power." --The Times