BLASTED

Sarah Kane

BLASTED

Tragedy

Sarah Kane's first play, "Blasted" (1995), might be called a dark prophecy of the violent and unjust world of our 21st century, but it is not. "Blasted" captures the eternal themes of civilization (perhaps even its condition): the end of the world, which seems to be already here, yet does not destroy humanity, neither with floods nor diseases, nor wars, nor the rest of the catastrophes. It is about the power of forgiveness that lives in a human being and especially in the spectator, making us sympathize with the weaker one. About the human being itself, who tries to find an expression of his humanity, pushing off from the cruel and cold world around him. About war, experienced intimately and in a peculiarly quiet way.

"Blasted" is a horror performance filled with anxiety, in which cruelty flows naturally. Blood is shed, tears fall, houses crumble, innocence crumbles, there is a desire to make love, to eat, and not to die - this is our own world in its naked and horrifying depiction.

"196. Law - If someone has made another person's eye blind, then his eye shall be made blind in return.

200. Law - If someone has knocked out the teeth of his equal, then his teeth shall be knocked out in return."

Hammurabi's Code (1754 BC)