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By: Sarah Kane
Author's Bibliography:
She is a playwright and she was born in Brentwood, Essex. She was brought up by
evangelical parents and she was a committed Christian. But later she rejected these
beliefs. She studied drama at Bristol University and she graduated in 1992. Then, she took
a MA course in playwriting at the University of Birmingham. For many years, she suffered
depression problems, for which she was twice admitted to Maudsley Hospital in London.
She went on writing, even if slowly, throughout her life. For a year, she was writer-in-
residence for Paines Plough, a theatre company which promotted a different type of writing
as well as encouraged new writers. She also worked as a literary associate for the Bush
Theatre in London. She died in 1999 because of committing suicide by hanging herself
with her shoelaces in the bathroom of the London King's College Hospital. She belongs to
the “In Yer Face” theatre, which describes the new way of writing in the 1990s. This writing
was aggressive, raw and angry. It used to shock the sensibility of the audience and to
explore the extremes of the human being by showing the most extreme excesses of the
contemporary society. Many of the characters have no scruples and the language is
aggressive and rude. The most important work of this kind of theatre was Blasted which
supossed a great impact. Besides she also wrote Skin which talk about a difficult and
violent relationship about a black woman and a racist skinhead and 4.48 Psychosis with no
plot, no characters and no indications about how many voices there are. It was written
when Sarah Kane was suffering a great depression. Her complete works are as follows:
Blasted (1995), Skin (1995), Phaedra's Love (1996), Cleansed (1998), Crave (1998), 4.48
Psychosis (2000)
Summary:
The play begins with a meeting in a expensive hotel room between Ian and Cate. Cate is
much younger than Ian, emotionally fragile, and seemingly intellectually simple. They used
to date in the past. Now, he has returned and confesses that he is in love with her. Ian tries
to seduce Cate, but she resists. Then, unexpectedly, a soldier enters the room brandishing
a gun. The hotel room is then struck by a mortar bomb, and the scene ends with the sound
of summer rain. Cate tries to scape but Ian is forced to listen the soldier's stories. He then
rapes Ian, and sucks out his eyes. Later, Cate returns, describing the city being overrun by
