First single volume edition of this bold version of a classic by Sarah Kane Sarah Kane's radical reworking of Seneca's classical tragedy of incest and unrequited lust. Phaedra's Love is a bold and provocative revisioning of the story of Phaedra's obsessive and destructive love of her son Hippolytus and his violent punishment by Theseus.Kane's achievement is to have humanised the antics of the pounding royals. Her sulphurous dialgoue is full of reeking toughness' Evening Standard 'Sarah Kane's writing is both daring and accomplished' Time Out 'Pure theatre or rather impure theatre: dirty, alarming, dangerous' Observer 'delivered with punch and laced with black humour' Financial Times

Love Me or Kill Me is the first study of Sarah Kane, the most significant British dramatist in post-war theater. It covers all of Kane's major plays and productions, contains hitherto unpublished material and reviews, and looks at her continuing influence after her tragic early death.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 1990's, Graham Saunders provides an introduction for those familiar and unfamiliar with her work.

This volume contains the complete collection of Sarah Kane's plays, including "Blasted"; "Phaedra's Love"; "Cleansed"; "Crave"; "4.48 Psychosis"; and "Skin".

Blasted: Cast gender - mixed; number - 2 males, 1 female (total 3); size - small; ages - adults; length - 5 scenes. Depiction of rape, torture and violence in civil war.

Length: 1 act.

This Student Edition of Sarah Kane's seminal play Blasted features expert and helpful annotation and is an accessible guide for anyone studying or performing the play. This includes a scene-by-scene summary, a detailed commentary on the dramatic, social and political context, and on the themes, characters, language and structure of the play, as well a list of suggested reading, questions for further study and a review of performance history. In 1995 Sarah Kane's first full-length play Blasted sent shockwaves throughout the theatrical world. Making front-page headlines, the play outraged critics with its depiction of rape, torture and violence in civil war. However, from being roundly condemned by the critics ('this disgusting feast of filth' Daily Mail), the play is now considered a seminal work of European theatre and has defined an entire era of stage writing. Blasted's canonical status reflects the raw beauty and terror of Kane's writing. Probing the brutality people inflict upon one another, the suffering and violation, the play also looks at the role of love and the redemption it offers. Unafraid to delve into darkness, this is a provocative, fragmenting piece full of significance and power.

With her controversial stage art, the young playwright Sarah Kane broke new dramaturgic ground and made a lasting impression that changed British drama forever. Even though it is part of the canon covering post-war drama, Kane’s work has often met with misunderstanding and fierce criticism due to the uncountable representations of atrocities. How can we make sense of Kane’s seemingly crude and bleak theatre? Mainly concentrating on the play Cleansed, the author examines the nature of violence in Kane’s writing. What purpose does it serve? Is it simply employed for its shock value? Or is it rather used as a metaphor? Kane herself considered her third full-length play as a play about love. In suggesting a figurative reading of the late playwright’s texts, the author shows how Kane embraces violence as a metaphor of the various sufferings both love and life perpetrate upon the human being. Locked beneath the revolting cruelties, we can find a vivid theatricality, powerful images, and a unique rhythm and sound of language.