Re: RAT Sarah Kane

["Allison Narver" <anarver@chesnutt.com>]

LEt me clarify -- (since everything seems to have taken on a swiping, nasty
tone -- I didn't want you to think I was being sarcastic) this woman's story
breaks my heart.  It is a reminder to me to watch out for my friends and be
as brave as I can be in my work.
Thank you for that reminder.
-----Original Message-----
From: Allison Narver <anarver@chesnutt.com>
To: rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com <rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com>
Date: Friday, February 26, 1999 7:24 AM
Subject: Re: RAT Sarah Kane


>This is incredibly sad.  Thanks for posting it.
>Allison
>-----Original Message-----
>From: KSTUARTXX@aol.com <KSTUARTXX@aol.com>
>To: rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com <rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com>
>Date: Friday, February 26, 1999 2:35 AM
>Subject: RAT Sarah Kane
>
>
>>I'm posting this about Sarah, not because   I think she was a great writer
>and
>>one who got to do things we don't get to do here in this silly country--
I
>>think her work should be read, and I want people to know about her.
>>
>>>From the obituaries page:
>>
>>With Blasted, which opened at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs on January
>>17, 1995, Sarah Kane, who has committed suicide aged 28, made the most
>>controversial theatre debut of recent times.
>>
>>No play or playwight had attracted such outrage since Edward Bond dared to
>>show a baby being stoned to death in his 1965 play Saved. A three-hander,
>>set in a Leeds hotel room occupied by a tabloid journalist and his
>>girlfriend, who find their space invaded by a rampaging soldier, Blasted
>>included scenes of fellatio, frottage, micturition, defecation, homosexual
>>rape, eye gouging and cannibalism.
>>
>>Critics were quick to condemn it as 'a feast of filth' although some were
>>brave enough to subsequently revise their opinion, noting that like Bond,
>>Kane's play was written in the bleached language of truth and poetry.
>>
>>Kane wrote simply and starkly about the world she saw around her, a world
>in
>>which violence and love were deeply entwined, and hope and despair were
>>mirror images of each other. For her, Blasted was simply a play about
>>'fragility, survival and hope'.
>>
>>Although her friends and her agent, Mel Kenyon, did as much as they could
>to
>>protect her from unwelcome attention, nothing could have prepared Kane for
>>the response to Blasted, which cast her as the bad girl of British
theatre.
>>While the tabloids tried to hunt her down, she spent her nights quietly
>>watching her play at the Royal Court, a pale, thin, anonymous girl.
>>
>>Ironically, Kane knew the territory well; she was a daughter of a Mirror
>>journalist. For a short time in her teens, she and her family became
>fervent
>>born-again Christians. Later, she rejected religion, but the violent,
>>apocalyptic, biblical imagery remained a feature of her work.
>>
>>She was always a writer. At seven she penned her first short story about a
>>man who met a violent end and at school she directed productions of
Chekhov
>>and Joan Littlewood's Oh, What A Lovely War. She got a first at Bristol
>>University, where she studied drama, and went on to do a master's degree
on
>>the Birmingham University playwriting course. It was there she began
>writing
>>Blasted. In her short career, she was to have only three original plays
>>produced, but together with Phaedra's Love, an adaptation of Seneca,
>>produced at the Gate in 1996, it represents a body of work that is a
mature
>>and vividly theatrical response to the pain of living.
>>
>>Talking about Phaedra's Love, she declared it a play about love, faith and
>>depression. 'Through being very, very low comes an ability to live in the
>>moment because there isn't anything else. What do you do if you feel the
>>truth is behind you? Many people feel depression is about emptiness but
>>actually it's about being so full that everything cancels itself out. You
>>can't have faith without doubt, and what are you left with when you can't
>>have love without hate?'
>>
>>The theme continued with Cleansed (Royal Court, May 1998), which was no
>less
>>violent than Blasted, and outraged a whole new set of critics with scenes
>>that included the injection of heroin into an eyeball, violent amputation
>>and suicide. But a play about the extremes of love had to be extreme
>itself;
>>it cost Kane a lot to write it and had taken her many years. 'There is an
>>enormous amount of depression in the play because I felt an enormous
amount
>>of despair when writing it,' she said.
>>
>>Crave, which opened at the Traverse in Edinburgh during last year's Fringe
>>Festival and subsequently transferred to the Royal Court, was a sudden
>>change of style. A virtuoso poem for four voices, styled as two parallel
>>conversations, it drew on The Wasteland and the Bible, and proved that
Kane
>>could write with tender, playful, Beckettian brilliance.
>>
>>The introversion of her work suggests that Kane might have been
>>self-obsessed and inward-looking. But those who knew her well say she was
a
>>loyal and entertaining friend, who could be very good company. As
>>writer-in-residence at the theatre company Paines Plough, she worked
>>tirelessly and with enormous generosity with emerging writers.
>>
>>When she died, she was under commission to a number of theatres and had a
>>new play soon to go into production for the Actors Touring Company. Like
>>Cleansed, it is inspired by Roland Barthes's assertion 'When one is in
>love,
>>one is in Dachau.' Like all her work it was about the catastrophe of love.
>>As a reluctant interviewee following the furore over Blasted, she told her
>>interrogator that Blasted was, for her, 'quite a peaceful play about
hope.'
>>The pity is that she could find none for herself.
>>
>>James Macdonald, associate director of the Royal Court, writes: I am
>sitting
>>on the stage of the Piccolo Teatro in Milan talking about Sarah Kane's
>work.
>>And I don't know she's dead. The main subject of the discussion is another
>>play, Martin Crimp's Attempts On Her Life, opening here today, a work
Sarah
>>loved. Proper Kane irony.
>>
>>Sarah did what no one else in her generation has so far managed to do: she
>>said the unsayable, in beautiful English and with witty, impossible stage
>>directions. In Cleansed, the second of her plays that I directed, her
piece
>>de resistance was perhaps the family of rats which appeared on stage in a
>>late draft of the play. Apparently they were inspired by finding a dead
rat
>>in the cutlery drawer of her kitchen. She told me later that she had
>created
>>them to punish me for making her rewrite. In fact, in rehearsals, Sarah
was
>>impeccably open-minded, supportive and very witty. The only thing she
would
>>get narked about was actors not observing her punctuation. 'If they don't
>do
>>that fucking comma properly, I'm going to kill them.'
>>
>>She was also extremely generous about other writers' work and an inspiring
>>teacher of playwriting. She ran brilliant workshops in Bulgaria and Spain
>>with the Royal Court International Summer school. She also coped
>brilliantly
>>with all the sanctimonious nonsense that was written about her work,
always
>>managing to laugh her way out of the hurt. I believe, above all, that she
>>was writing about the possibilities of love. And in our time of consensus
>>and artistic cowardice, no one else has done so with her courage and
>>imagination.
>>
>>Michael Billington adds: One thing people in Britain didn't realise was
the
>>extent of her fame throughout Europe. Cleansed has just been given an
>>apparently sensational production by Peter Zadek in Hamburg. Blasted has
>>been performed all over Europe. Kane's name was known in just about every
>>European capital. Wherever I went I found there was an extraordinary
>>curiosity about her work and what it said about contemporary Britain.
>>
>>Sarah Kane, writer, born February 3, 1971; died February 20, 1999
>>
>>
>>
>
>