I went last night and have not been able to get it out of my head. Just to curious to hear if others have seen it and have any thoughts. Never have I walked out of a show so utterly horrified, and never before has a show crept under my skin like this one.
I'd recommend it 1000 times over, so long as you've got a strong stomach!
So, anybody else?
Theatre is a safe place to do the unsafe things that need to be done.
-John Patrick Shanley
i haven't seen this production, but I know the work of Sarah Kane... it is utterly chilling.
I saw a production of her play "Cleansed" and to this day it remains one of the most horrifying and moving theatrical experiences
"Picture "The View," with the wisecracking, sympathetic sweethearts of that ABC television show replaced by a panel of embittered, suffering or enraged Arab women" -the Times review of Black Eyed
"Blasted" is really wonderful. This production is totally awesome. Especially the sound design, by Matt Tierney. By the end, the vibrations and static noise had me totally blown away, in a good way. It's certainly not for the faint of heart, but anyone interested in modern theatre should go.
Well, the woman was obviously troubled. She did kill herself, after all. As I said earlier, after seeing BLASTED it's kinda obvious that she wasn't thinking about sunshine and lollipops.
Oh I'm so excited it extended! I read a review of this awhile ago, but it didn't really inspire me, but after hearing all about it I really want to see it. I love dark theater, so I'm excited to see it. How small is the theater? Is that why it's selling out?
I saw a relatively recent production of "Blasted" in Chicago, and was thoroughly disturbed by it. I never leave plays, not even at intermission, but I was "this close" to getting up and leaving, and probably would have had the play not abruptly ended.
As a life-long sufferer of depression myself, I am very saddened by how tragic Sarah Kane's short life was. But "Blasted" is snuff theatre, basically. I am sure that Kane wrote the play from a very honest place and wanted it to have meaning, but unfortunately I found the production I saw to have little artistic value beyond the excellent performances of the three actors. I have no problem with sexually explicit or violent plays--I mean, I count "Sweeney Todd," "Red Light Winter," and "The Pillowman" as some of my favorite works--but I don't feel that "Blasted" earns it's graphic nature. If you're going to have [SPOILER] a baby being eaten onstage, a man's eyes sucked out and eaten, and a rape all simulated onstage in one play, there has to be a good artistic reason for it. And there just doesn't seem to be any artistic reason for some of the very disturbing events in that play.
But maybe the New York production found a way to make the play work better. It seems to have done pretty well. It certainly is a memorable piece of work, I can say that.
