Customer comments on this selection.
 Brutal, crude and important
A unique voice that took her life too soon. These plays are an important testament to the IN Your Face Theater that lashed out in the 90s. Sometimes mistaken for pointless violence, Kane has a brilliant ability to cut to the heart of humanity and explore the darker aspects of our own kind.
Dramatics
Sarah Kane's collected plays represent an underestimated force in theater. Much like the work of Elfriede Jelinek or Ntozake Shange, Kane takes a private pain (losing oneself in another or testing the limits of proclaimed love) and creates a verbal landscape that the audience must inhabit, either by force of shock or noble acceptance of empathy. In either case, her plays must be reckoned with upon finishing. I think perhaps the most intriguing and powerful to me was 4.48 Psychosis, her final and posthumously performed play. There are no defined characters because who cannot claim a piece within the multitude of confessions that the play really unfolds as. Brutally honest and intentionally confrontational, this play, above the others, embodies the last possible moments of hope in anyone's life. Kane's characters rarely make the choice to latch on to these moments, but they are there and cannot be ignored.
Not just Family Fun...
Sarah Kane is anything but family friendly. Her plays are raw, brutal, and yet beautiful in an ironic way. She takes all of the hate that exists in this world and uses it to show us the beauty that can come from the ruble of a blown up building. There is no way to actually describe Sarah Kane to you to make you want to buy her book. I was forced to buy it because of a class at my college, but I don't think I'll be selling this one back. I never thought I would enjoy a play such as Blasted. If you want to understand what my review actually means, buy the book, read a couple of her pieces and then read this again. I'm sure you will understand then.
BRUTAL BUT BEAUTIFUL!
One of the strongest women writers that lived, she revolutionized theatre and her death was unfortunate robbed theatre of her potential. A Great collection of her complete work at a great price. Cleansed was my favorite in the collection. Her work is so poetic, stark, honest, painful, and brutal.
Traumatic, funny, devastating
These are the most electric scripts to arrive in a long while. Sadly, the source was snuffed in 1999. Kane's writing is at once repellent and seductive. "Blasted" is exceptional, riffing on Beckett blatantly, but still signature of a visionary voice: inyerface, exuberant, filthy, poetic, profound. As a debut, it is truly remarkable. "Phaedra's Love" and "Cleansed" push the envelope past the hyper-real into lightning-bright brilliance, and with thunderous emotional depth. How does one stage this stuff? Kane's challenging work sets the imagination--and ultimately, the soul--on fire.
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