Sarah Kane S Theatre Of Psychic Life

Sarah Kane was one of the landmark playwrights of 1990s Britain, her influence being felt across UK and European theatre. This is the first book to focus exclusively on Kane's unique approach to mind and mental health. It offers an important re-evaluation of her oeuvre, revealing the relationship between theatre and mind which lies at the heart of her theatrical project. Drawing on performance theory, psychoanalysis and neuroscience, this book argues that Kane's innovations generate a 'dramaturgy of psychic life', which re-shapes the encounter between stage and audience. It uses previously unseen archival material and contemporary productions to uncover the mechanics of this innovative theatre practice. Through a radically open-ended approach to dramaturgy, Kane's works offer urgent insights into mental suffering that take us beyond traditional discourses of empathy and mental health and into a profound rethinking of theatre as a mode of thought. As such, her theatre can help us to understand debates about mental suffering today.

Sarah Kane was one of the landmark playwrights of 1990s Britain, her influence being felt across UK and European theatre. This is the first book to focus exclusively on Kane's unique approach to mind and mental health. It offers an important re-evaluation of her oeuvre, revealing the relationship between theatre and mind which lies at the heart of her theatrical project. Drawing on performance theory, psychoanalysis and neuroscience, this book argues that Kane's innovations generate a 'dramaturgy of psychic life', which re-shapes the encounter between stage and audience. It uses previously unseen archival material and contemporary productions to uncover the mechanics of this innovative theatre practice. Through a radically open-ended approach to dramaturgy, Kane's works offer urgent insights into mental suffering that take us beyond traditional discourses of empathy and mental health and into a profound rethinking of theatre as a mode of thought. As such, her theatre can help us to understand debates about mental suffering today.

Sarah Kane was one of the landmark playwrights of 1990s Britain, her influence being felt across UK and European theatre. This is the first book to focus exclusively on Kane's unique approach to mind and mental health. It offers an important re-evaluation of her oeuvre, revealing the relationship between theatre and mind which lies at the heart of her theatrical project. Drawing on performance theory, psychoanalysis and neuroscience, this book argues that Kane's innovations generate a 'dramaturgy of psychic life', which re-shapes the encounter between stage and audience. It uses previously unseen archival material and contemporary productions to uncover the mechanics of this innovative theatre practice. Through a radically open-ended approach to dramaturgy, Kane's works offer urgent insights into mental suffering that take us beyond traditional discourses of empathy and mental health and into a profound rethinking of theatre as a mode of thought. As such, her theatre can help us to understand debates about mental suffering today.

In this expanded second edition of her book, Ajda Bastan explores the various forms of violence depicted in British theatre during the latter half of the twentieth century. She offers a comprehensive analysis that presents the complex interplay between theatre, society, and the multifaceted nature of violence in the dramatic arts. The book includes commentary on physical, emotional, sexual, economic, and self-directed violence, examining these themes in nine plays by eight prominent British playwrights. The plays covered in chronological order are "Look Back in Anger," "The Birthday Party," "Entertaining Mr. Sloane," "Saved," "Vinegar Tom," "Plenty," "Blasted," "Shopping and Fucking," and "Cleansed."

Adorno and Modern Theatre explores the drama of Edward Bond, David Rudkin, Howard Barker and Sarah Kane in the context of the work of leading philosopher Theodor W. Adorno (1903-1969). The book engages with key principles of Adorno's aesthetic theory and cultural critique and examines their influence on a generation of seminal post-war dramatists.

Love Me or Kill Me is the first study of Sarah Kane, the most significant British dramatist in post-war theater. It covers all of Kane's major plays and productions, contains hitherto unpublished material and reviews, and looks at her continuing influence after her tragic early death. Locating the main dramatic sources and features of her work as well as centralizing her place within the 'new wave' of emergent British dramatists in the 1990's, Graham Saunders provides an introduction for those familiar and unfamiliar with her work.

With her controversial stage art, the young playwright Sarah Kane broke new dramaturgic ground and made a lasting impression that changed British drama forever. Even though it is part of the canon covering post-war drama, Kane’s work has often met with misunderstanding and fierce criticism due to the uncountable representations of atrocities. How can we make sense of Kane’s seemingly crude and bleak theatre? Mainly concentrating on the play Cleansed, the author examines the nature of violence in Kane’s writing. What purpose does it serve? Is it simply employed for its shock value? Or is it rather used as a metaphor? Kane herself considered her third full-length play as a play about love. In suggesting a figurative reading of the late playwright’s texts, the author shows how Kane embraces violence as a metaphor of the various sufferings both love and life perpetrate upon the human being. Locked beneath the revolting cruelties, we can find a vivid theatricality, powerful images, and a unique rhythm and sound of language.

This Student Edition of Sarah Kane's seminal play Blasted features expert and helpful annotation and is an accessible guide for anyone studying or performing the play. This includes a scene-by-scene summary, a detailed commentary on the dramatic, social and political context, and on the themes, characters, language and structure of the play, as well a list of suggested reading, questions for further study and a review of performance history. In 1995 Sarah Kane's first full-length play Blasted sent shockwaves throughout the theatrical world. Making front-page headlines, the play outraged critics with its depiction of rape, torture and violence in civil war. However, from being roundly condemned by the critics ('this disgusting feast of filth' Daily Mail), the play is now considered a seminal work of European theatre and has defined an entire era of stage writing. Blasted's canonical status reflects the raw beauty and terror of Kane's writing. Probing the brutality people inflict upon one another, the suffering and violation, the play also looks at the role of love and the redemption it offers. Unafraid to delve into darkness, this is a provocative, fragmenting piece full of significance and power.