| Sarah Kane(1971-1999) has been celebrated as one of the leading playwrights of the 1990 s Britain and her radical and experiential work, recognized most notably for its violent and cruel images, has given expression to a new aesthetic sensibility, In-Yer-Face Theatre. During her brief theatrical career, she creates five remarkable plays to the world, Blasted(1995), Phaedra's Love(1996), Cleansed(1998), Crave(1998) and 4.48 Psychosis(1999), which have altered the landscape of the contemporary British theatre.Kane in her In-Yer-Face Theatre, ostensibly portrays a world that is unremittingly violent, cruel and harsh, yet, with a dissective observation, it can be found that her plays are none of these things. On the contrary, an unending quest for love, hope, honesty and redemption in the cruelty-haunted world is at the heart of her theatrical production.Based on Antonin Artaud's theories of Theatre of Cruelty, this thesis grapples with the world of catastrophe portrayed by Kane, so as to unveil the playwright's real concern for humanity which is distorted by the atrocity permeated the world, and for the healing devices embedded in her work, with particular reference to Blasted, Phaedra's Love and Cleansed.This thesis is composed of five parts. The introductory part introduces the background information, the approaches, the significance of the study, as well as the research on Sarah Kane abroad and at home. In addition, the Theatre of Cruelty and Artaud's manifesto on theatre are also included, which function as the theoretical support for a detailed study.Chapter one examines an atrocity-haunted world portrayed in Kane's work, where she delineates horrific scenes of suffering. The atrocity is displayed in two aspects. The first aspect lies in the cruelty of war. Engulfed in the omnipresent brutality and cruelty in a war-torn environment, the soldier in Blasted has been severely traumatized and crushed, psychologically and emotionally. Thus, he takes revenge upon the world by reenacting various horrific acts that he has witnessed or inflicted before, on the disadvantaged Ian and finally blows his own brain out. The soldier's life has been blasted into pieces in the war. The second aspect comes to the severe life situation that characters, in particular represented by Ian and Cate, have encountered. Ian, though being aggressive and brutal in the presence of Cate, has entrapped himself in the cruel life reality: the disruption of his marriage, his rotting body, and his work that poses life-threat to him, all of which have pushed his life into ruins. Cate, a vulnerable and innocent girl, also shows herself in the brutal world as a site of victim, tormented sexually and physically. Kane shows cruelty not gratuitously, but purposely to imitate life reality, in relation to Artaud's ideology of theatre. In the most compassionate way, Kane reminds people that both war and life are unendurable but must be endured.Chapter two attempts to make an in-depth exploration of the humanity distorted in the evil world. Concomitant with the cruelty-corrupted world comes the traumatized psyche of the individual, which is unfolded in the problematic interpersonal relations and a sense of nihilism. The characters are confronted with a crisis of defamiliarization, which has rooted their alienated and indifferent attitude toward others. In addition, as the representatives of Kane's male protagonists, Ian in Blasted, Hippolytus in Phaedra's Love and Tinker in Cleansed are also stuck in their nihilistic stages, which further deepens their existential anxiety. Kane's spine of analysis into the abnormal humanity embedded in cruelty leads people into a deeper understanding of themselves meanwhile sparks the redemptive possibilities of love and hope.Chapter three subsequently focuses on a detailed discussion of the redemption of humanity. Kane maps out the possibilities of survival and redemption with the tough love and consolation in loyalty. Here, it is the female characters in Kane's plays that, after devastation, begin to make their powerful appearance on stage and boldly undertake the responsibilities of redemption, through selling their bodies, committing suicide and other self-sacrificing ways, to render the traumatized males awakening awareness and integrated humanities. In the course of redemption, the male characters Ian, Hippolytus and Tinker have all found their redemptive love and regained their lost humanity. Besides, loyalty and honesty in the hypocritical world work out another means by which Hippolytus and Phaedra have achieved their redemption.Conclusion is the final part. Grounded on Antonin Artaud's manifesto on the spectacle of cruelty in theatre, this thesis examines the real concerns veiled behind cruelty in Sarah Kane's three “In-Yer-Face” plays, Blasted, Phaedra's Love and Cleansed. Here it is reasonable to draw a conclusion that with unrelenting presentation of bloody violence and cruelty on the stage, Kane, in a stark way, intentionally foreground a rude awakening to extreme realities and the traumatized humanity in veil of the atrocity. Meanwhile, love, faith and hope, emerging more and more strongly from the pain and calamity of reality, are invested with the redemptive possibilities to the despairing world. Employing explicitly shocking In-Yer-Face aesthetics in her work, Sarah Kane violently explores contemporary issues about humanity which is traumatized in the cruelty-haunted world, a shadowy representation of the reality. Simultaneously, in Kane's world, love, faith and hope are an overarching presence, by which Kane explicitly and intensely render them as the healing device to redeem the distorted humanity in the chaotic world. |
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