Kane: Complete Plays: Blasted; Phaedra's Love; Cleansed; Crave; 4.48 Psychosis; Skin

Description

When Blasted was first produced at the Royal Court in 1995 it was hailed jointly as a masterpiece and a "disgusting piece of filth" (Daily Mail). Subsequently that play, and the others that followed, have been produced all over the world. This anthology includes Kane's never-before-published Channel 4 screenplay, Skin.

Sarah Kane was born in 1971. Her first play, Blasted, was produced at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in 1995. Her second play, Phaedra's Love, was produced at the Gate Theatre in 1996. In April 1998, Cleansed was produced at the Royal Court Theatre Downstairs, and in September 1998, Crave was produced by Paines Plough and Bright Ltd at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh. Her last play, 4.48 Psychosis, premiered at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs in June 2000. Her short film, Skin, produced by British Screen/Channel Four, premiered in June 1997. Sarah Kane died in 1999, and is now recognised as one of the most influential voices in modern European theatre.

"Sarah Kane, a provocative playwright whose bleak view of the limitations of human relationships and graphic dramatizations of violence and sex earned her a reputation as an enfant terrible of the British theater...Blasted immediately established her as an important voice in modern playwriting." --The New York Times "Kane wrote simply and starkly about the world she saw around her...a mature and vividly theatrical response to the pain of living." --Guardian "Shocking and revelatory." --New York Magazine (Blasted review) "As compact and beautiful as a diamond in structure--and yet the mood it inspires is as black as coal." --Time Out (4.48 Psychosis review) "A hugely unnerving theatrical experience, shot through with the language of the Bible and a genuinesly poetic richness." --Time Out (Crave review) "The writing has an almost unparalleled distiled intensity which is often unbearable to watch...To some it will be repellent.Others will recognize it as absolute proof of the power of live theatre." --Independent (Cleansed review) "Pure theatre. Or rather, impure theatre: dirty, alarming, dangerous." --Observer (Phaedra's Love review)