Product Description

Her play, "Blasted", brought Sarah Kane to the theatre pages of the broadsheets, the front pages of the tabloids, and to the notice of the nation. Based on conversations with directors, actors and others who knew her, this book studies the British post-war dramatist, covering all Kane's major plays and productions, as well as hitherto unpublished material and reviews. It also looks at her continuing influence after her tragic early death. Locating the main dramatic sources and features of her work as well as centralizing her place within the "new wave" of emergent British dramatists in the 1990s, Graham Saunders provides an introduction for those familiar and unfamiliar with her work.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #55355 in Books
• Published on: 2002-04-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
'This is a pioneering book that will have a marked influence of all subsequent Sarah Kane studies. Graham Saunders has spoken to directors, actors and others who worked with her and knew her intimately. You can hear the rustle of draft scripts, feet in rehearsal rooms, the coffee cups of students discussing late into the night. It is astonishing to read such intimate accounts of a woman who became a public icon in her short life... This is not a sycophantic book, its judgements are balanced - and that makes us realise all the more what we have lost. It was one little death, but theatre will need a crowd of brilliant writers to take her place - if even then.' Edward Bond

About the Author
Graham Saunders is a lecturer in Theatre Studies at Coventry University

Customer Reviews

A must for Kane and Experimetal Theatre
If you like or are studying Kane then this book is essential. Its also a fantastic aid for experimental in-yer-face theatre as it comments not only on the specifics of Kane's work, but gives details of how performances were staged, providing glimpses and ideas for visualising plays with minimal stage and character descriptions, like Martin Crimp's work for instance. I used this as a secondary source for my dissertation and it became a sort of bible. I've never regretted buying it.

A Comprehensive Guide for an Important Playwright
No doubt Sarah Kane will attract much attention from students over the next few years as the forerunner of the 'in yer face' sensibility and one of the least studied and most talked about playwrights of the 20th century. Thankfully Sauders' comprehensive study is a very useful work to fill the academic void that surrounds this important playwright. It gives useful background, influences and reactions to all of Kane's plays in significant depth. It also includes many useful interviews and the introduction shows great insight into the state of British theatre during the 1990s. If you are a fan of Sarah Kane, or want to write an essay on her then currently this is by far the most important work to read.

Buy it it's great!
After using this in one of my essays on contemporary playwrights by lecturer made a point of hunting me down just so that he could tell me well done! I started writing an essay on Sarah Kane only to find that there is virtually nothing written about her or her work! THankfully this book is pretty much exhaustive and was an absolute saviour for me! It is really interesting, and covers a lot of different aspects. There is a chapter on each play, including 4.48 Psychosis which is new enough to never be referred to in academic reading! As well as analysing her work there are also several chapters based round interviews with friends and people that she worked with, as well as reviews and comments on the first performance! If you like Sarah Kane then this is brillaint, if you're easily shocked then I wouldn't because Kane wasn't shy about what she wrote!