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.
Blasted guide sections
