Performing Arts: Blasted (Kane)

Over the past few lessons, we have been looking at Blasted by Sarah Kane. The detailed description of the play can be found here and here.

READING THE PLAY

The violence within the play is extreme and becomes more so with every layer that is added, however, towards the end of the play the shock value appears to be lost. Maybe this was because we were reading the play so weren't watching the violence unfold onstage, although an audience could feel this and thus Kane could be suggesting that when someone sees violence often they become immune to it. This can certainly be seen in Cate's character as at the end of the play when she sees Ian without eyes and gives a sexual favour to a soldier for food, she doesn't appear to be as affected as she may have been at the start of the play.

Ian's character arc is inferred to be the loss of power as at the start of the play he seems controlling of Cate and very racist/homophobic/misogynistic. This personality is stereotypically what men in power tend to have. The loss of power at the end is shown as he has to rely on Cate to come back and bring him food and is shown as he appears to be losing his sanity in the final scene. Cate is shown as innocent and childlike throughout the play despite her age and thus it could be implied that she has a disability of some kind but she is determined and can defend herself against Ian's sexual attempts. At the beginning of the play Cate has limited power over Ian but at the end of the play she is the only thing that Ian can count on - it is in this way that Ian and Cate's relationship is switched in terms of power. Ian and Cate's relationship is toxic as I have mentioned in a previous blog. This can be seen as not only does Ian rape Cate, Cate bites Ian's penis. The lack of words after this has happened suggests that this is normal repetitive behaviour. Moreover, it is implied that Ian is a sexual predator and had preyed on Cate from a young age most probably because of her inferred disability.

The Soldier serves the purpose of bringing more foul language into the piece alongside physical violence which is typical of Kane's style. He shows how the effects of war can impact a person. Moreover, the lack of name given to the Soldier suggests that he and other soldiers are nothing but pawns to bigger power sources - which makes it ironic that he is able to overpower the most powerful person in the play thus far (Ian) - and thus lose their identity.

Kane wouldn't be Kane without the juxtaposition of tenderness which can be seen in the final scene of the play where Cate feeds Ian food even after the events of the play. This is very typical for Kane's style and could represent how humanity can continue to flourish even after horror.

THEMES

The major themes within the play are:

Loss of power of those who were once in control - this can be seen by the first and last words spoken by Ian. The first line spoken by Ian is "I've shat in better places than this" which not only shows Ian's arrogance but is also ironic because in the last scene he does defecate in the hotel. The first line shows that Ian isn't grateful for good things but at the end of the play he says "Thank you" for being fed by Cate which he wouldn't have done in the first part of the play.
The effects of war.
How people can lose their identity due to violence.
How youth and innocence can be destroyed by violence.
Toxic relationships.

TASK

In a group of two, we were asked to come up with what the main theme is and how we would show this if we were to direct the piece. With Bella, the theme that we chose was the loss/transfer of power and the three moments that we thought show this are:

At the beginning of the play when Ian shows himself naked to Cate which shows he believes he has the major power over Cate as he wouldn't do that if he felt confident which comes with having a large amount of power over the situation.
When the Soldier rapes Ian and gouges his eyes out which shows that Ian is under the will of the Soldier. This begins Ian's loss of power and transfers it to the soldier who does have more power in this scene. More power being a bigger gun.
When Ian says "Thank you" to Cate at the end. Ian relies on Cate and has to be polite otherwise she would most probably leave. However, he does still have some power over Cate and thus the roles haven't been fully reversed nor has there been a full transfer of power. This can be seen as Cate still does as he asks - or maybe this is because she doesn't know what else to do because she has been so well sexually groomed by Ian.

PORTION OF THE PLAY WE CHOSE

The images below show the part of the play we chose with annotations. We chose this part of the play because it shows how Ian has little power but does have some power as Cate does what he says. However, Cate does have major power in this scene because she denies him from taking his own life.