In the mid-1990s, in an expensive hotel room in Leeds, a middle-aged man seduces a young woman. When she resists, he rapes her. At the same time this man--journalist Ian--attacks naive, simple-minded Cate, a war rages outside the hotel. After a soldier breaks into the room, a mortar shell blasts away the wall of the hotel, crushing the violence of the hotel room into the violence of the world outside. Originally called a “disgusting feast of filth,” Blasted has since been recognized as a visceral and poetic investigation of the horrors of conflict and bloodshed, largely inspired by the Yugoslav wars. Beyond its violent action, Sarah Kane’s first play is lauded as a portrayal of how humanity attempts to survive in the face of unimaginable death and destruction.
This play will be available on the Drama Library through September and October. As part of "Hear, Here Vol I", there will be an offline reading of this play at Drama School, Mumbai on the 23rd of October.