#disturbing work; but again‚ it's rarer to find critical commentary on the revolutionary act of kindness which ends the play. Sarah captured | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mariocki · 2 years ago

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Play 20: Phaedra's Love by Sarah Kane

First performed: Gate Theatre, London, 1996

Quote: "There's a thing between us, an awesome fucking thing, can you feel it? It burns. Meant to be. We were. Meant to be." (Phaedra)

Stage direction: [Opens her mouth. No sound comes out.]

Notable cast: the original Gate production included Andrew Scott in a minor role. Laurence Penry-Jones starred in a 2005 revival at the Old Vic.

Notes: Only Kane's second play, Phaedra's Love was commissioned by the Gate Theatre, who asked for a drama inspired by a classical text. Reworking Seneca's Phaedra, Kane produced a clipped, precise distillation of tragedy as narrative. A paean to self-destruction which comments on voyeurism, faith and the inadequacies of love; critical reception was muted when compared to the histrionic moralising that greeted her first play, Blasted (1995). Featuring scenes of astonishing violence and horror, contemporary readings often focus on the brutality and nihilism of Kane's dialogue - but they're missing an extraordinary tenderness which unfolds alongside it. A masterful, troubling work from one of the greatest (and most sorely missed) voices of a generation of theatre.

Read: for the first time, but definitely not the last.

#100plays #phaedra's love #sarah kane #modern drama #modern theatre #seneca #phaedra #andrew scott #laurence penry jones #gate theatre #Kane was just 25 when she wrote Phaedra's Love‚ but her work was already both highly regarded by some champions in the established theatre #(Edward Bond was a mentor of sorts‚ Pinter an admirer) whilst simultaneously provoking outrage among critics and audiences #a remarkable work from an extraordinary playwright‚ one of the most significant voices in British theatre and a burning visionary whose #untimely death robbed us of who knows what kind of incendiary work. Sarah's work has been much reevaluated and appraised in the years since #she took her own life‚ and her current critical standing is beyond anything she could have imagined in her own lifetime; but still academic #work on her texts focus on the perceived nihilism and bleakness of her work‚ equating the graphic violence and strong language with her own #struggles with depression. i think there is some truth there‚ certainly‚ but what I think is missed is the flipside: the tenderness in the #scenes between Hippolytus and Strophe is rarely written about with as much zeal as the horrific scenes which close the play. Blasted‚ the #play which both made her name and brought astonishing condemnation from the press and government‚ remains a distressing and #disturbing work; but again‚ it's rarer to find critical commentary on the revolutionary act of kindness which ends the play. Sarah captured #something deep and true about humanity‚ something cloaked in deep ugliness and terror and violence‚ but at its heart something still very #human and capable of kindness and love in even the most grotesque of situations. and in that she found a unique voice that sees her work #still performed and written about and appreciated as something startling and new and different‚ nearly a quarter century after her death.

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