Author Topic: Violence in Blasted  (Read 11428 times)

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Offline Lalitavira

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Re: Violence in Blasted
« Reply #5 on: July 18, 2008, 07:37:40 AM »
It depends on how you do it. Kane did believe the Tarantinoesque German production got it wrong (see Graham Saunders's book) and there have been productions of e.g Cleansed directed by James MacDonald which were highly stylised. This can work much better than trying to be realistic which can end up being laughable. I am concerned Dani that the tone of your post implies you believe all productions should try to reproduce some sort of realistic portrayal. She didn't do this herself in 'Phaedra's Love', I saw the original Gate production, and frequently puts stage directions in her work that are impossible to follow realistically ( 'A vulture descends and begins to eat his body'). The point was to honour the image theatrically.

I'm currently in a very successful run of 'Phaedra's Love' at the Project in Dublin one of whose strengths is the stylised presentation of the rapes, throat cutting and disembowelment of the climax. In the round and under full house lights the blood is poured on beforehand, the knife movements are several feet from the body and delivered mock heroically and the sound cue (arriving a few seconds late) is of pigs in a slaughterhouse. Despite it being absolutely clear to the audience how the image is being constructed everybody has commented how effective this is. In fact they don't need to comment, you can feel the horror. For those interested in European theatre this approach stems from the director Jason Byrne's admiration for Romeo Castellucci.

Offline Len

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Re: Violence in Blasted
« Reply #4 on: March 12, 2008, 09:06:02 PM »
I think a careful and open-minded approach to Edward Bond's 'Saved' explores the same reading and development to any of Kane's work.
Len

Offline Aimz

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Re: Violence in Blasted
« Reply #3 on: February 11, 2008, 12:28:49 PM »
I agree that using a lot of different techniques to  show the violence in Blasted is definatly needed. However too much might annoy the audience or they might become bored. >:( its the same with my 4.48 production im wanting to really scare my audience and make them feel uncomfortable by breaking the 4th wall but if you add to much in the effect might not be as good as it was at the beginning towards the end.
x x x x Aimz x x x x

Greta

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Re: Violence in Blasted
« Reply #2 on: October 25, 2007, 04:01:05 AM »
I do agree that the staging of violence in the play is of utmost importance, and I think it is aimed at forcing the audience out of the comfort of their seats and making them experience this violence, to shock them out of the position of passive observers (not only as audience, but in our attitude to everyday violence), similar to what the Soldier does to Ian to show him that the acts of war violence heĀ“s been telling him of are just as "personal" as any of the stories he writes by making him expierence them himself. Anyway, I think one should be careful not to reduce the staging of the play to a Tarantino pulp pageant, otherwise KaneĀ“s powerful images would not carry as much weight - I actually remember reading, I think it was in IanĀ“s site, that Kane hadnĀ“t liked it a bit when Blasted was staged in Germany with excessive nudity and putting the stress solely on the physical violence.

By the way, IĀ“m working on a paper comparing the treatment of violence in Blasted to PinterĀ“s Ashes to Ashes, any ideas are more than welcome!
« Last Edit: October 26, 2007, 10:31:01 PM by Iain Fisher »

dani

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Violence in Blasted
« Reply #1 on: October 22, 2007, 10:30:09 AM »
 on the violence in SARAH'S BLASTED...
i believe that you should show every painful awful second of it. Sarah was not a sick-o. she did not write any of the rapes and murders in her show just for the hell of it...IT MATTERS!!!!!!!!!!!

if you are planning to do a perduction of BLASTED and don't want all the violence...pick another show
« Last Edit: October 26, 2007, 10:30:43 PM by Iain Fisher »