Sarah Kane’s is a name that is spoken with reverence in certain circles of British – and central European – theatre. This controversial playwright, who for many years struggled with severe depression, burst onto the scene in the mid-90s with a series of exceedingly violent and formally experimental works – starting with Blasted, whose 1995 debut caused uproar – before taking her own life in 1999 at the age of 28. Cleansed (1998), considered by many to be Kane’s best work, is now receiving a rare revival at the Almeida, London’s most exciting theatre by far.
Kane’s work was, initially, received predominantly negatively by critics, who were appalled at the horrors evoked and bewildered as to what it all added up to. After her shocking death, a rapid reappraisal was effected; there was obviously sorrow at a promising young life lost, as well as a nagging feeling that some essential element might have been missed in the haste to pass judgement. When her last play, 4.48 Psychosis, completed shortly before she died and premiered posthumously, opened at the Royal Court in 2000, the critical mood had shifted markedly, not least because that character-free work deals with the spirals a dangerously fragmented mind.
