CW: mental illness, drug use, suicide, bodily mutilation
I read this play because a friend of mine issued an open casting call for auditions. This is not the first Sarah Kane play that this theater has put on in the last few years, so I wanted to see why there was such a focus on this playwright. If this play is any indication of Kane’s other works, the best word to describe her writing is “daring.” Between the characters, plot points, and stage directions, Kane does not hold back.
This play centers on a group of people at a “university”. That word is in quotes there because although that is what the stage directions say, the location reads more like an antiquated torture-chamber-style mental institution before we understood that people with mental illness deserve compassion and care. There is a gay couple, a brother and sister, and the doctor overseeing them all. Over all, there’s not much by way of plot, and I don’t know how much I want to give away. The play is short and I think not knowing much of the plot points will make reading the play or seeing it on stage more interesting.
What I will talk about are these stage directions. Playwright Sarah Kane really pushes what is feasible to the extreme with Cleansed. I earnestly do not know how anyone could ever pull this play off on stage. Some of the stage directions are just wild. Absolutely wild. For example, at one point, a giant sunflower is supposed to bloom behind two adults and cover the entire stage. Rats are supposed to carry off a man’s severed foot. Someone’s tongue gets cut off. I just cannot begin to fathom how this will be accomplished in reality, live, on a stage.