Provocative and dramatic, British playwright Sarah Kane’s Blasted was met with hostility and outrage upon its 1995 debut. The play was originally condemned for its use of absurd brutality (in one scene, for example, one of the characters sucks out another’s eyes). But it quickly became a historic piece of theatre.
In commemoration of its 20th anniversary, Pi Theatre is presenting the second-ever professional staging of Blasted in Canada. Despite its legacy, the play has only been staged a handful of times in all of North America. North American producers have been largely unwilling to confront the ambitious theatricality and courageous acting that the play demands.
Artist Director Richard Wolfe and the Pi Theatre have endeavoured to bring the conversation surrounding Blasted to Western Canada. The play continues to generate controversy due to its intense violence, but it is also demanding and highly theatrical on an artistic level.
“The play is about the link between intimate violence and the institutionalized violence of war,” explained Wolfe. “The violence is not a glorification of violence, it is not for entertainment, but [Sarah Kane] was showing that all war is a nightmare.”
The play opens with a disturbed man’s brutal seduction of a young woman in his hotel room. The wrenching domestic scene is interrupted by the arrival of a war-hardened soldier — an event that blasts open “the metaphorical door that stands between us and institutional violence,” Wolfe explained.
Still, the play portrays the profoundly sensitive side of humanity. “It is a love story, too,” Wolfe described. “There is a real sense of need [for] compassion and human contact.” The play is the convergence of the most horrific, malicious acts with the desire to be loved.
Written when Sarah Kane was only 23 years old, Blasted was the first of five plays she wrote before the her suicide in 1999 at the age of 28. Her influential work deals with love, desire, pain, torture, and death.
Wolfe’s production features daring and brilliant actors Cherise Clarke, Raresh DiMofte, and Michael Kopsa. Acclaimed set designer Drew Facey confronts the challenge of creating a set capable of exploding each show, while Simon Fraser University alumnus Remy Siu will provide sound design.
After the performance, audience members are invited to mingle in Pi Theatre’s adjoining lounge. “The play doesn’t give answers, it just makes you think and makes you feel,” explained Wolfe. “We want people to come down after the show and have a couple drinks and talk about the experience.”
People who are interested in dangerous art and polished aesthetics will enjoy this non-traditional performance. “There is high theatricality, there is fantastic acting — the play is electric,” described Wolfe. “If you like theatre [that] you will be engaged in, then you’d enjoy [Blasted].”
Blasted will be presented by Pi Theatre April 10 to 25. For more information, visit pitheatre.com.
