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113-575: Cleansed is the third play by the English playwright Sarah Kane . It was first performed in 1998 at the Royal Court Theatre Downstairs in London. The play is set in a university which (according to the blurb of the published script) is operating as "an institution designed to rid society of its undesirables" where "a group of inmates try to save themselves through love" while under the rule of

226-471: A 1997 interview that "The link between [ Blasted and Cleansed ] is thematic rather than narrative for the simple reason that everyone at the end of Blasted is dead. [ Cleansed is] a completely different play in every way. The trilogy will eventually amount to three responses to war." However, she then said to the interviewer "I've changed my mind about what the trilogy is about just in that second. They are not about war at all but about faith, hope and love in

339-425: A booth. He attempts to masturbate , but gets upset and leaves. Rod sits in a room with Carl, remorsefully crying. Tinker enters and cuts off Carl's feet. Robin buys a box of chocolates for Grace, who had mentioned that her previous boyfriend had bought her chocolates. Tinker confiscates the box of chocolates and questions Robin about them, who says they are for Grace. Tinker stands above him and throws chocolates on

452-466: A contemporary setting. In this reworking of the myth of Phaedra's doomed love for her stepson Hippolytus , it is Hippolytus, rather than Phaedra, who takes the central role. It is Hippolytus' emotional cruelty which pushes Phaedra to suicide . Kane reversed classical tradition by showing, rather than describing, violent action on stage. The play contains some of Kane's wittiest and most cynical dialogue. Kane described it as "my comedy". Directed by Kane, it

565-453: A depressive illness [and while] the balance of her mind was disturbed". The inquest heard how Kane had not been observed by nurses between 2am and 3:30am on 20 February, which was the timeframe when she left her room in the hospital and went to the toilets where she killed herself. One of the psychiatrists who assessed Kane, Dr Nigel Tunstall, told the inquest how he "took it as read" that Kane would be "constantly observed" by nurses because of

678-667: A feminine fat pattern distribution. The physiological effects of emasculation are more severe for people who undergo the procedure before the onset of puberty. Emasculation was performed in China on men to create palace eunuchs for the imperial court. The practice dates back to the Shang dynasty (1600–1046 BC) and continued up until 1924, when the eunuch system was abolished by the last emperor of China, Puyi . The last living palace eunuch, Sun Yaoting , died in 1996. Originally, palace eunuchs were prisoners who were involuntarily emasculated. In

791-578: A form of entertainment. ‘Go on, jump over that’, ‘Say that to the bully’, ‘Go on cut yourself’. Sarah was that child, and where some reined her back, others let her go, even encouraged her." He also said that "We all behaved a bit strangely after Sarah's death. It awoke old despairs, and morbidities, and adolescent terrors." The playwright Edward Bond knew Kane personally and had a correspondence with her. Bond has referred to Kane's suicide in various essays he has written about theatre. In an essay from 1999 (revised in 2000) Bond wrote "Sarah Kane had to confront

904-410: A half seconds to remove all your clothes, run around the back of the stage and get into a thing and come whizzing up through another hole. And I think at one point I said to one of the other actors: “God, this is really really hard isn't it?” And he said “ Yes, it is. ”" The first production of Cleansed was attended by low audience numbers, with it reportedly playing to an average of just 14 per cent of

1017-473: A higher level of purity. Originally, the emasculation procedure was performed by burning the testicles off with an iron. Later, the genitals were tied at the base and removed using a knife or razor blade. The wound was then cauterised, or a salve was applied, to prevent bleeding. Many Skoptsy were peasants and were familiar with animal husbandry, which meant their emasculation procedures were often performed with "surgical precision." In some instances, members of

1130-456: A line in [her play] Crave: 'Death is my lover, and he wants to move in.' That's quite a line, isn't it? She felt man's inhumanity to man so profoundly. I believe that's what finally killed her. She couldn't stand the bloody thing any more." Pinter spoke at Kane's memorial and is reported to have just said the following four words: "She was a poet". The artistic director of The Bush Theatre , Dominic Dromgoole , had previously known Kane when she

1243-441: A male less masculine , including by humiliation. It can also mean to deprive anything of vigour or effectiveness. This figurative usage has become more common than the literal meaning. For example: " William Lewis Hughes voted for Folkestone's amendment to Curwen's emasculated reform bill , 12 June 1809 ... " In horticulture , the removal of male (pollen) parts of a plant, largely for controlled pollination and breeding purposes,

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1356-439: A matter of personal choice. For Muslim Hijra, emasculation may be avoided due to the belief that genital mutilation goes against Allah's will. Others see emasculation as necessary in order to be 'reborn' as a Hijra. In this view, emasculated Hijra are seen as more 'real' than those who are not. The decision to be emasculated may also be motivated by personal beliefs about whether a Hijra can have spiritual powers without undergoing

1469-467: A move to a freer, sometimes lyrical writing style, at times inspired by her reading of the Bible and T. S. Eliot 's The Waste Land . It has four characters, each identified only by a letter of the alphabet. It dispenses with plot and unlike her earlier work, with its highly specific stage directions, gives no indication what actions, if any, the actors should perform on stage, nor does it give any setting for

1582-722: A naturalistic—though troubling—world, the play takes on different, nightmarish dimensions when a soldier, armed with a sniper 's rifle, appears in the room. The narrative ultimately breaks into a series of increasingly disturbing short scenes. Its scenes of anal rape, cannibalism, and other forms of brutality, created one of the biggest theatre scandals in London since Edward Bond 's Saved in 1965. Kane admired Bond's work, and he in turn publicly defended Kane's play and talent. Other dramatists whom Kane particularly liked and who could be seen as influences include Samuel Beckett , Howard Barker , and Georg Büchner , whose play Woyzeck she later directed (Gate Theatre, London 1997). Blasted

1695-486: A person to seek emasculation. People with this disorder are distressed by the presence of a limb that they do not identify as part of their body, including the genitals. Emasculation in this context alleviates their distress, enabling them to become 'whole'. However, the amputation of healthy limbs by medical professionals is highly controversial. The inability to acquire medically administered emasculation has driven some to self-emasculation. Occasionally, self-emasculation

1808-427: A real problem there". Sarah Kane Sarah Kane (3 February 1971 – 20 February 1999) was an English playwright , screenwriter and theatre director . She is known for her plays that deal with themes of redemptive love, sexual desire, pain, torture—both physical and psychological—and death. They are characterised by a poetic intensity, pared-down language, exploration of theatrical form and, in her earlier work,

1921-502: A rejected lover is not unlike the situation of a prisoner in Dachau ." Cleansed is set in what Kane in her stage directions described as a "university" but which functions more as a torture chamber or concentration camp , overseen by the sadistic Tinker. It places a young woman and her brother, a disturbed boy, a gay couple and a peepshow dancer within this world of extreme cruelty in which declarations of love are viciously tested. It pushes

2034-427: A very very difficult thing to do when you're standing in front of 400 people with no clothes on. Be simple […] Your instinct is to run away. But actually It's a very simple thing. What do I want? What do I feel? And How do I enable myself to feel that? I also learnt how difficult it is to do that, particularly in a play like Cleansed where you kind of disappear through a hole in the stage and you have precisely three and

2147-454: A wall going: “Nah, I can't do this...” But in the end, I did the last three nights. And it was amazing." Director James MacDonald said that while rehearsing with Kane in the role they had reworked "the bit in which the actress used to be thrown up against the wall and beaten up" as "we couldn't risk a writer". The Guardian reported that "Despite the fact that one insensitive member of the audience laughed himself silly when Kane's starring role

2260-474: A way that is not symbolic?" Towards the end of the production's run actress Suzan Sylvester was unable to perform as Grace due to being injured. Subsequently, two performances of the play were cancelled but the last three performances went ahead with Sarah Kane portraying the role of Grace instead. Actor Daniel Evans, who played Robin, said that Sylvester "injured her back during one of the flying sequences". However, Sarah Kane and director James MacDonald claimed

2373-641: A year she was writer-in-residence for Paines Plough , a theatre company promoting new writing, where she actively encouraged other writers. Before that, she had worked briefly as literary associate for the Bush Theatre , London. Kane struggled with severe depression for many years and was twice voluntarily admitted to the Maudsley Hospital in London. She took antidepressants with reluctance. According to Kane's agent, Mel Kenyon, Kane told her "she didn't like taking pills because they numbed her response to

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2486-519: Is Sarah's best play." In the first scene, a timid Graham approaches Tinker, who appears to be a drug dealer. He says he 'wants out' and also asks for drugs. Tinker refuses. They then have an argument about whether or not they are friends. Tinker eventually injects Graham with drugs and he overdoses and dies. Rod and Carl sit in a room together, Carl asks Rod if he can have his ring as a proposal of marriage . Rod initially refuses. Carl promises to always love him, never betray him, and never lie to him. Rod

2599-403: Is a condition where people mutilate their genitals as a result of psychotic religious delusions . For example, in one case a person is reported to have mutilated his genitals after experiencing auditory hallucinations telling him he would only be allowed into the kingdom of heaven if he emasculated himself. Body integrity dysphoria , or xenomelia, is another mental disorder that may drive

2712-433: Is and b) how easy it is. I'm taking no more crap from directors about what is and isn't possible in performance. It can be such a simple thing, in fact I think it's the simplicity that makes it difficult, difficult but not complicated." Kane elaborated on this realisation of hers in a 1998 interview at Royal Holloway University : "I can't talk about all acting, but what Cleansed asked for was extreme simplicity. And that's

2825-413: Is cynical. Rod claims that Carl does not even know his real name, and states that he would never die for Carl. Carl is not fazed and keeps asking for the ring. Rod doesn't surrender the ring but admits that he loves him. They kiss. Grace enters the hospital demanding her brother, Graham's, clothes. The dialogue between her and Tinker imply that her twin brother, Graham, has died. Tinker brings Robin in, who

2938-404: Is notable for its many difficult to achieve stage directions which have been described as "impossible". Examples include: " Tinker produces a large pair of scissors and cuts off Carl' s tongue " (Scene Four). " A sunflower bursts through the floor and grows above their heads " (Scene Six). " The rats carry Carl' s feet away " (Scene Fourteen). Sarah Kane said "There's a Jacobean play with

3051-451: Is possible to see such a future for theatre. Her plays present the need for such a theatre." In 2021 Bond wrote "[Kane] had personal problems but she was destroyed by the theatre industry. Drama had been her umbilical lifeline but the theatre industry tuned it into the rope with which she hanged herself." Kane originally wanted to be a poet, but decided that she was unable to convey her thoughts and feelings through poetry. She wrote that she

3164-929: Is practiced by those suffering from gender dysphoria. When compared with the general population, transgender persons are at a higher risk of engaging in acts of genital self-mutilation, including self-emasculation. In some cases, a person with a mental illness has emasculated other people. Emasculation occurs voluntarily within the transgender community as a form of gender reassignment surgery , allowing recipients to renounce their masculine characteristics and bring their body into closer alignment with their identified gender. It may be sought by trans women (those assigned male at birth who identify as female), who wish to assume their femininity, or by non-binary transgender individuals (those assigned male at birth who identify as neither male nor female), who want to locate themselves outside of traditional gender categories. For trans women, emasculation surgery may be performed with or without

3277-546: Is taken from John Ford 's tragedy 'Tis Pity She's a Whore . The line is said in Ford's play by the characters Bologna and Annabella who, like Grace and Graham in Cleansed , are siblings that are engaged in an incestuous relationship with each other. Abandoned 'war' trilogy At one point Kane planned for Cleansed to form the second part of a loose trilogy on the subject of war, with the first part being Blasted . Kane explained in

3390-601: Is the rape camps in Bosnia and the logical conclusion to the way society expects men to behave is war." Blasted was produced again in 2001 at the Royal Court. The assistant director of this production, Joseph Hill-Gibbins , suggests that "The argument is made through form, through the shifts in styles in Blasted . That's how she constructs the argument, by taking this setting in an English Northern industrial town and suddenly transporting

3503-407: Is wearing Graham's clothes. The two switch clothing, with Grace wearing her brother's clothes and Robin wearing the dress Grace came in with (Robin was originally written as a boy but is sometimes played by a girl). After a psychotic break triggered by her brother's lingering scent, Grace is admitted into the hospital. Grace asks Robin to write her father for her, but Robin reveals he cannot write. In

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3616-570: The London Film Festival in October 1995 and televised by Channel 4 in 1997. The film is directed by Vincent O'Connell and stars Ewen Bremner , Marcia Rose , Yemi Ajibade and James Bannon. Kane was then commissioned by the Gate Theatre , London, to write a play inspired by a classic text. Phaedra's Love was loosely based on the classical dramatist Seneca 's play Phaedra , but given

3729-564: The Mental Health Act if she attempted to leave the hospital. Kane was admitted to the Brunel ward of the King's College Hospital, which was a general ward and not a psychiatric wing. While in hospital, she was visited by her agent Mel Kenyon. Kane told Kenyon that her attempted suicide by overdose had been unsuccessful because she had eaten pizza. Kenyon recalled that when she visited Kane "She

3842-575: The Qing dynasty , men began volunteering to undergo the procedure in order to gain employment, although instances of forced emasculation still occurred. One reason why recipients willingly underwent emasculation is that they saw employment as a palace eunuch as a way to acquire wealth and power. Alternatively, poverty was a reason why fathers forced their sons to undergo emasculation, and the desire for financial benefit motivated human traffickers to force emasculation on their victims. There were several reasons why

3955-716: The Shang dynasty (1700–1100 BC), when the characters for a knife and male genitalia were carved into oracle bones. It continued up until the Sui dynasty (581–618 CE), when it was formally abolished. There are reports of self-emasculation cases resulting from mental disorder . Some academics claim that a majority of self-emasculations are a result of psychosis, although this finding has been challenged. Nonetheless, there are several reported cases of people with schizophrenia engaging in self-emasculation. It has been linked to other mental disorders such as dissociative identity disorder. Klingsor syndrome, sometimes known as Skotpic syndrome

4068-579: The Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh in 1998. The play was performed under the pseudonym of Marie Kelvedon, partly because the notion amused Kane, but also so that the play could be viewed without the taint of its author's notorious reputation. "Marie" was Kane's middle name and she was brought up in the town of Kelvedon Hatch in Essex. Crave marks a break from the on-stage violence of Kane's previous works and

4181-675: The sadistic Tinker. When the play premiered at the Royal Court in April 1998, Kane played the part of Grace for the last three performances because of an injury that the original actress suffered. It is sometimes claimed that Tinker was named after the theatre critic for British newspaper The Daily Mail , Jack Tinker , whose review of Kane's first play Blasted was headlined "this disgusting feast of filth", but there does not appear to be any evidence of Kane confirming this. Sarah Kane's brother and executor of her estate, Simon Kane, in 2005 remarked that "overseas many, many people think that Cleansed

4294-502: The " psychotic mind". According to Greig, the title derives from the time—4:48 a.m.—when Kane, in her depressed state, frequently woke in the morning. In 1998, Kane was included in the Evening Standard ' s list of 'London's Top 100 women', which was a list of "The most influential women in the capital". In the same year she was also featured in the newspaper's list of "London's fifty brightest young things". In 1999 she

4407-585: The 1930s, when the sect was destroyed and its members sentenced. The Skoptsy practiced genital mutilation because they believed the genitals were the source of original sin, and that by removing them, they could attain salvation. The aim of removing the offending genitalia was to purify the body. Their belief was based on a literal reading of the verse of Matthew 19:12 , which states: "There are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for

4520-601: The Hijra community. Today it remains an important ritual, though is not mandatory or universally practiced. When it is performed, it typically occurs several years after an individual has already participated within the Hijra community. While some Hijra are emasculated, others are intersex, undeveloped in puberty or impotent. Whether or not a Hijra undergoes emasculation is influenced by a range of considerations. Some people are not emasculated because they are fearful of surgical complications, are under financial constraints, or merely as

4633-464: The Imperial court required its civil servants to be emasculated. Emasculation was thought to ensure a recipient's undivided loyalty to the emperor, as it severs the recipient's existing familial or social bonds and destroys their ability to produce future heirs. The choice to hire emasculated eunuchs also ensured the legitimacy of the emperor's lineage. The choice to emasculate, rather than merely castrate,

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4746-558: The Skoptsy would perform the emasculation on themselves, in an act of self-surgery, though it was more typical for the procedure to be performed by an elder during a ceremony. Throughout the Indian subcontinent tradition , including India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, some members of the Hijra community reportedly undergo emasculation, or nirvan. Traditionally, emasculation was a rite of passage into

4859-468: The [1990s]" but later remarked in 2009 that although he initially "thought she was very typical of the new writing of the middle 1990s", "[t]he further we get away from that in time, the more un-typical she seems to be". Kane's published work consists of five plays, the short film Skin , and two newspaper articles for The Guardian . Born in Brentwood, Essex , and raised by evangelical parents, Kane

4972-463: The action to a war zone." The critical realism that the first scene sets up is "literally blasted apart" in Scene Two. The critic Ken Urban says that "for Kane, hell is not metaphysical: it is hyperreal, reality magnified". Skin was an eleven-minute film written for Channel 4 , a British TV station, depicting a violent relationship between a black woman and a racist skinhead . It was first shown at

5085-490: The bed behind her, touching his groin. Upon the realization that his genitals were cut off and grafted onto Grace, he starts to cry. Tinker goes and has sex with the Woman, declaring his love for her. In the final scene, Grace sits on stage with Carl, who is now wearing her dress. She speaks to Graham until she realizes he is not there. She thanks Tinker as Carl begins to cry again. Grace and Carl are alone on stage, when, finally,

5198-423: The communication between medical staff be improved by formalising the procedures that related to the risk assessment of patients. However, a spokesperson from the hospital said that none of these procedures would have prevented her death. After the inquest Sarah Kane's father, Peter Kane, considered taking legal action against the hospital for " criminal negligence ". He stated that "The hospital has admitted there

5311-419: The context of war […] Blasted is about hope. Cleansed is about love. Scrap the bit before the war. It's suddenly become clear to me." It was originally thought that the final part of this supposed trilogy was incomplete due to Kane's untimely death in 1999. However, according to Simon Kane (who is Sarah's brother and the executor of her estate) she only wrote "a very rough first draft" of the third play under

5424-436: The country dimmed their lights as a mark of respect. Kane's agent, Mel Kenyon, stated that "I don't think she was depressed, It was deeper than that. I think she felt something more like existential despair – which is what makes many artists tick." Kenyon's words were challenged by playwright Anthony Neilson who in a letter to The Guardian wrote that "No one in despair “ticks”" and that "Truth didn't kill her, lies did:

5537-431: The creation of a vagina. When a vagina is created, the procedure is called a vaginoplasty , and where it is not, the procedure is called a vulvoplasty . For non-binary transgender people, the purpose of emasculation is to make the body less congruent with one's assigned sex without the subsequent assumption of femininity. These individuals may identify as non-binary, a third-sex, eunuch, or another gender. Some adopt

5650-420: The early hours of February 17, 1999, Kane attempted suicide in her Brixton flat by consuming 50 sleeping pills and over 150 antidepressant tablets. Her flatmate, David Gibson, awoke and found a suicide note from her, stating that he was not to enter her room. Ignoring this request, Gibson entered Kane's room where he found her to be unconscious. Kane was then taken to London's King's College Hospital where she

5763-459: The essay Gordon commented on the negative impact of how "our culture romanticises creativity and depression". He wrote that "The tragic suicide of the young playwright Sarah Kane is already finding its place in the mythology of the creative depressive: the artist - young or old, but preferably young - who creates public beauty out of personal suffering." He concluded his piece writing that "Only those who knew Sarah Kane personally can mourn her. Perhaps

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5876-476: The great historian Sima Qian , Cao Teng , the foster grandfather of Cao Cao , Zheng He , a Ming dynasty admiral of the imperial navy who sailed to Africa, and the surviving sons and grandson of rebel Yaqub Beg . To create eunuchs for the Arab slave trade , young black boys from South East Africa typically had their penis and scrotum amputated. White boys, by comparison, were usually only castrated. Emasculation

5989-423: The great privileges of my life having acted alongside her as well as being in her plays." Kane's performance was also praised by actor Stuart McQuarrie, who played Tinker. McQuarrie said "to have acted with Sarah when she took over for those last performances were some of the most extraordinary nights I'll ever have in the theatre. Her delivery was just perfect. That's how we all ought to have been doing it in – that

6102-481: The ground towards him, demanding that he eats them. Crying, Robin is force-fed the whole box of chocolates. In the next scene, Rod is crying, still, as Carl crawls up to him. They embrace, and then have sex. Rod vows never to lie to him, never to betray him, and to always love him. Tinker enters the room after they are finished, and slits Rod's throat in front of Carl, who holds him as he dies. Grace and Robin sit together with Graham looking on. Robin works on counting

6215-503: The implacable are death, a lavatory and shoelaces. They are her comment on the meaningless of our theatre and our lives, and on our own false gods." In 2000 Bond wrote that "Her suicide has to be understood. She was the most gifted dramatist of her generation. It is said that she killed herself because she was clinically depressed. What does that mean of a writer? Not that her death had a cause, but that her life had no inducement. She saw no future for theatre and so none for herself. But it

6328-406: The implacable. You can postpone the confrontation only when you are certain that at some time it will take place. Otherwise it will slip away. Everything Sarah Kane did had authority. If she thought that perhaps the confrontation could not take place in our theatre, because it was losing the understanding and the means – she could not risk waiting. Instead she staged it elsewhere. Her means to confront

6441-434: The injury was a result of Sylvester trying to pull her dog off another dog. Kane explained: "There are rumours circulating that I pushed an actress downstairs. It's not true. Her dog was trying to have sex with another dog in a park. And she was puling it off and slipped a disc . […] That is honestly what happened. And so we sort of sat there for two days going “what are we going to do? Could it be pushed back in place?” but

6554-528: The kingdom of heaven's sake." In addition, the verses of Matthew 18 :8,9 and Luke 23 :29 were also cited as support. Of the two types of genital mutilation available to men, emasculation was called the Greater Seal. Castration, by comparison, was called the Lesser Seal. Emasculation was preferable because it rendered a recipient physically incapable of engaging in sinful sexual conduct, allowing them to attain

6667-536: The lies of worthlessness and futility whispered by an afflicted brain". Neilson suggested that Kane's depression was the result of "crazy and irregular tides of chemicals that crash through the brain" and that "Far from enhancing talent these neurological storms waste time, narrow vision and frequently lead, as here, to that most tragic, most selfish actions". Eight days after Kane's death The Independent published an essay written by Paul Gordon titled "You don't have to be suicidal to be an artist, and it doesn't help". In

6780-520: The limits of what can be realised in the theatre: stage directions include "a sunflower pushes through the floor and grows above their heads" and "the rats carry Carl's feet away". The play was presented at the National Theatre in London in 2016, the first time any of Kane's work had been performed there. A change in critical opinion occurred with Kane's fourth play, Crave , which was directed by Vicky Featherstone and presented by Paines Plough at

6893-406: The morning, around 3   a.m. or 4   a.m. Anesthesia is not administered. The penis and testes are tied together with a string, and the elder then makes two diagonal cuts with a sharp surgical knife to completely excise the organs. The elder allows the blood to gush from the wound, which is considered necessary to completely cleanse the recipient of their male parts. This is one reason why

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7006-503: The most brilliant plays of the last hundred years. And one of the actors was saying "You know, we don't understand it. We think it's a really good play and last night no one came". Literally no one turned up to see it. […] So how did it become such a classic, which it has. To me I think it's kind of, anything which no one turns up [to see] at some point is bound to turn out to be quite good. And anything that sells to packed out audiences, there's probably something wrong with it. There's probably

7119-412: The most important New York premieres of the decade". In December 2011, the playwright David Eldridge wrote that "For any playwright of my generation the spirit and experiential theatre of Sarah Kane casts a long shadow. Sarah believed passionately that form ought to be expressive and carry meaning as powerfully as the story of a play. Blasted markedly influenced my adaptation of the film Festen for

7232-413: The next scene, Tinker beats Carl, wanting him to admit that he and Rod are romantically involved. He sodomizes Carl with a long pole, threatening to shove it through his body entirely . Carl gives up Rod's name and apologizes to Rod for it. Tinker then cuts out Carl's tongue and makes him swallow Rod's ring. Grace has begun to hallucinate her brother. Stage directions and dialogue between them throughout

7345-501: The notes from psychiatrist Dr Sedza Mujic who had also assessed Kane. However, nurses were unaware that Kane needed continuous supervision. Dr Tunstall also wrote in his notes that Kane did not require one-to-one care from a psychiatric nurse. It was stated that one of the reasons this was not requested was because it was felt that such a measure could be counter-productive, as Kane was ambivalent towards psychiatric treatment. A review panel that investigated Kane's death recommended that

7458-407: The number of days in his 30-year sentence. Upset that Grace is not listening, Robin takes off the stockings he has been wearing and ties them around his neck. Grace continues not to pay attention, and Robin hangs himself. Grace gets a sex change while in the hospital. She arrives onstage with bandages on her groin and breasts. Tinker says she's a lovely man, just like her brother. Carl awakes from

7571-450: The penis and testicles may be removed during a series of stages. Medical surgeons use this method when performing surgery on trans women who want their genitals removed over multiple sex reassignment surgeries (male-to-female) , rather than in a single operation. In these surgeries, the tissue is used and re-shaped into the neo-vagina and vulva. Short-term consequences of emasculation include bleeding and infection. Historically, death

7684-426: The perceived loss of attributes traditionally associated with masculinity , such as strength, power, or autonomy. There are several different methods of emasculation. Both the penis and testicles may be removed simultaneously using a sharp instrument, such as a knife or razor or swords. Non-crushing vascular clamps may also be used in medical surgery to cut off blood circulation and reduce bleeding. Alternatively,

7797-457: The play imply that they had an incestuous relationship. Haunted by Graham, Grace tries to teach Robin how to read. Robin states his love for her, but Grace rejects him. Tinker comes into the room, tears out the writing in Robin's notebook, and leaves again. He goes and cuts off Carl's hands in front of Rod, who lays there and comforts him. Tinker goes to see an exotic dancer , known simply as Woman, in

7910-467: The play. As such, it may have been influenced by Martin Crimp 's 1997 play Attempts on Her Life , which similarly dispenses with setting and overall narrative . Kane had written of her admiration for Crimp's formal innovations. The work is highly intertextual . At the time, Kane regarded it as the "most despairing" of her plays, written when she had lost "faith in love". Her last play, 4.48 Psychosis ,

8023-521: The playwright Edward Bond . In a letter that Bond sent to Kane in September 1997, he wrote how he suspected that " Cleansed is even more powerful than [ Blasted ] because it takes any two or three minutes of Blasted and subjects them to great pressure." According to Kane's agent, Mel Kenyon, The Royal Court theatre "commissioned [ Cleansed ] quite quickly, although again it took them a long time to put it on – in fact it took them so long they had to renew

8136-421: The problem was that she had to be flown halfway up a wall and do all sorts of extraordinary things, which is just not possible to do with a slipped disc. So we were going to close, at which point I got very depressed and thought: "I can't quite bear for the play to end in this way". And in a moment of rashness I said "well, look, I know the lines. I could do it". And the next thing I knew I was being flown halfway up

8249-595: The procedure is performed by an elder rather than a medical professional, who might try to stop the haemorrhage, thus interfering with the ritual's cleansing effect. Afterwards, no stitches are taken and the wound is left exposed, although a small stick is inserted into the urethra to prevent urethral stricture. Emasculation was one of the Five Punishments used in ancient China . It was the prescribed punishment for people who engaged in licentious conduct, such as infidelity or rape. The first evidence of its use dates to

8362-465: The procedure. Amongst members of the Hijra community, this issue is subject to considerable debate. In the past, the emasculation procedure was performed by barbers or by the individual themselves (i.e. self-emasculation). Nowadays, the operation is performed by a Hijra elder, also called a dai ma (midwife). They have no medical training, but believe they operate with the power of the patron goddess, Bahuchara Mata . The operation takes place early in

8475-472: The rest of us could be less in thrall to the romantic ideas of which her death is prey and think more of the thousands of “nameless” suicides whose deaths each year shames us, as individuals and as a society." The playwright Harold Pinter knew Kane personally and remarked how he was not surprised to hear the news of her suicide: "She talked about it a great deal. She just said it was on the cards, you know, and I had to say, 'Come on! For God's sake!' I remember

8588-614: The rights after twelve months." Kane claimed that she had written Cleansed specifically as a play that would only work as a piece of theatre and could not be adapted to other dramatic mediums "I made the deliberate decision to write something that couldn't be film or television. Some people will argue that it can't be theatre either, but I want to stretch the theatrical language. Theatre might not be hip and cool, but at least there isn't any direct censorship, and you're never going to have that with film or TV". Artistic influences "The choice of acknowledged sources that inform Cleansed [is]

8701-474: The same question that dogs Kane's first three plays: how do-able are they? […] This is a question that goes to the heart of Kane's writing. Every one of her plays asks the director to make radical staging decisions […] In a Kane play the author makes demands but she does not make solutions. Kane believed passionately that if it was possible to imagine something, it was possible to represent it. By demanding an interventionist and radical approach from her directors she

8814-482: The stage ". Playwright Robert Askins, who received a 2015 Tony Award nomination for Best Play for Hand to God , has cited Kane as a major inspiration. In Ukraine, director Roza Sarkisyan chose to produce an excerpt of one of Kane's plays for the British Council in 2017, and cites Kane as an inspiration. Emasculation The term emasculation may be used in a metaphorical sense, referring to

8927-461: The stage direction 'Her spirit rises from her body and walks away, leaving her body behind.' Anyway, Shakespeare has a bear running across the stage in A Winter's Tale , and his stage craft was perfect". Sarah Kane's friend and fellow playwright, David Greig , wrote about the play's stage directions in his introduction to Sarah Kane: Complete Plays : "Theatrically, Cleansed is a daring challenge. It's physicalisation of lyrical imagery raises

9040-401: The structure of Cleansed on the play Woyzeck by Georg Büchner . She also directed a production of Woyzeck at the Gate Theatre , Notting Hill in 1997. Other inspirations include Shakespeare 's Twelfth Night , August Strindberg 's The Ghost Sonata , Franz Kafka 's The Trial and George Orwell 's Nineteen Eighty-Four . Grace's line directed at Graham "Love me or kill me"

9153-401: The sun comes out. Sarah Kane stated that she "started [writing Cleansed ] before Blasted was even staged" and that "it took three years to finish it." Kane's friend and fellow playwright Mark Ravenhill has said "Kane told me she wrote Cleansed when she was in love" and that the play "[was not] written by a person who knew she would commit suicide." Kane sent a draft of the script to

9266-562: The term ' nullo ', meaning someone whose gender has been nullified. In some circumstances, a person may be emasculated involuntarily as the result of an accident, as part of a ritual attack, or due to poor circumcision practice. In these cases, the objective of medical treatment is different than for cases of voluntary emasculation. The goals of treatment are to either reattach the severed genitals or to reconstruct an artificial penis and testes. From 1960 to 2000, involuntarily emasculated infants were surgically reassigned female, similar to

9379-486: The theatre's audience capacity. At an interview and Q&A session in 1998 at Royal Holloway University, Kane said: "most good plays are only really liked in retrospect […] When Cleansed was on at the Royal Court there was one point we were playing to very very small audiences. I saw, God knows what it was on, but there was this bit of old TV footage [of] some actors who were in Serjeant Musgrave's Dance . One of

9492-503: The time." Whilst talking about how her play Phaedra's Love deals with the theme of depression, Kane said that "[t]hrough being very, very low comes an ability to live in the moment because there isn't anything else. What do you do if you feel the truth is behind you? Many people feel depression is about emptiness but actually it's about being so full that everything cancels itself out. You can't have faith without doubt, and what are you left with when you can't have love without hate?" In

9605-419: The treatment received by David Reimer after his penis was burnt off during a circumcision procedure. It is now understood from cases like Reimer's that gender reassignment surgery in infancy can interfere with gender identity formation. Therefore, gender reassignment is no longer the standard practice for involuntarily emasculated infants. By extension, the word emasculation has also come to mean rendering

9718-406: The use of extreme and violent stage action. Kane herself and scholars of her work, such as Graham Saunders, have identified some of her inspirations as expressionist theatre and Jacobean tragedy . The critic Aleks Sierz saw her work as part of a confrontational style and sensibility of drama termed " in-yer-face theatre ". Sierz originally called Kane "the quintessential in-yer-face writer of

9831-469: The widest and more disparate of all of Kane's work" Graham Saunders, ' Love Me Or Kill Me': Sarah Kane and the Theatre of Extremes , page 87. The play was partly inspired by Roland Barthes ' work A Lover's Discourse . Kane commented that "There's a point in A Lover's Discourse when he says the situation of a rejected lover is not unlike the situation of a prisoner in Dachau . And when I read it I

9944-698: The working title of " Viva Death " but she "abandoned the idea" as she thought it had too many similarities to her previous work and "she didn't want to repeat herself". Another reason why Viva Death might have been abandoned is because, according to Nils Tabert who was the German translator of Cleansed , Sarah Kane had purposely moved away from creating representations of violence when she wrote her next play Crave : "she called from Edinburgh at some stage saying 'I'm past violence – I'm really sick of it. It's becoming like Trainspotting with film – so marketable and boring and I don't want to deal with it anymore.'" The play

10057-429: The world, which is, of course, what they're supposed to do. But as an artist, it's extraordinarily difficult if your responsive level is made less intense. What do you do? Take pills and take away the despair? But despair also engenders knowledge in some way, and that knowledge fuels your understanding of the world and therefore your writing, but at the same time you want to exorcise the despair. She tried to weigh it up all

10170-617: Was "without doubt the most performed new writer on the international circuit". Fellow playwright Mark Ravenhill has said her plays "have almost certainly achieved canonical status". At one point in Germany, there were 17 simultaneous productions of her work. In November 2010, the theatre critic Ben Brantley of the New York Times described the SoHo Rep's "shattering production" of Kane's Blasted (which had opened two years previously) as "one of

10283-513: Was a committed Christian in adolescence. Later, however, she rejected those beliefs. After attending Shenfield High School she studied drama at Bristol University , graduating in 1992, and went on to take an MA course in play writing at the University of Birmingham , led by the playwright David Edgar . She praised Jeremy Weller's Mad as "the one piece of theatre that changed my life". Kane wrote consistently throughout her adult life. For

10396-551: Was also a potential complication, although the prevalence is disputed. Long term complications include incontinence, urethral stricture , urine retention, urinary tract infection, urine extravasation and bladder stones. Some studies have found that emasculation may cause a range of physiological changes, such as a shortened torso, widened stomach and hips, increased height, bowed legs, and an elongated skull. Additionally, emasculates typically have less or no facial and body hair, increased fatty tissue or gynecomastia , and

10509-414: Was announced before the show, the playwright acquitted herself admirably in a role that offers nowhere to hide. It's even possible – at a stretch – to see the play's climatic stitching of a penis to her character's crotch as a symbol of the success of this audacious theatrical transplant." Actor Daniel Evans said that Kane "learnt the lines and went on with almost no rehearsal – and she blew us all away. She

10622-474: Was attracted to the stage because "theatre has no memory, which makes it the most existential of the arts. No doubt that is why I keep coming back in the hope that someone in a dark room somewhere will show me an image that burns itself into my mind". Kane's first play was Blasted . Kane wrote the first two scenes while a student in Birmingham, where they were given a public performance. The agent Mel Kenyon

10735-447: Was bathed in cold water to numb his senses and, in some instances, his genitals were twisted to reduce blood flow. The recipient was then asked if he consented to the procedure, and if he answered yes the knifer excised the genitals with a single cut. Styptic powder was then applied to the wound to stop bleeding, and a pewter needle or spigot was inserted into the urethra to prevent stenosis (narrowing). Some Chinese emasculates were

10848-454: Was completed shortly before she died and was performed in 2000, at the Royal Court, directed by James Macdonald. This, Kane's shortest and most fragmented theatrical work, dispenses with plot and character, and no indication is given as to how many actors were intended to voice the play. Written at a time when Kane was suffering from severe depression, it has been described by her fellow-playwright and friend David Greig as having as its subject

10961-485: Was directed at "certain people in the profession" who he claimed to have taken advantage of her: "There were a lot of timid souls who dared not, who forced Sarah to dare on their behalf. She enacted their fantasies of outrage for them. There is always one child in the class who will do the things others fear to. That is what marks them out, their courage, and their will. The good friends of that child will help her to harness it for her own benefit. The bad friends will use it as

11074-445: Was extraordinary. She looked happy, healthy. She was very funny. She was brimming with self confidence. I took her 200 cigarettes which we hid under the bed. We talked about everything under the sun. We did talk about suicide. We did talk about God. We did talk about plays. We did talk about friendship.[…] And then after I had given her the fags I just kissed her on her forehead and I said 'I love you' and she said 'I love you too' and that

11187-443: Was fearless and connected. The performance required her to dance, to fly, to remove all her clothes – and she did it without blinking." He also said "She was brilliant – extraordinary and above all raw. I always said that she made us look like actors, because she was so raw. She wasn't acting in the accepted sense of that term and any acting next door to that just seems like huge acting." Evans has also stated that "I consider that one of

11300-549: Was fiercely attacked in the British press. Blasted was, however, praised by fellow playwrights Martin Crimp , Harold Pinter (who became a friend), Caryl Churchill , who considered it "rather a tender play". It was later seen to be making parallels between domestic violence and the war in Bosnia , and between emotional and physical violence. Kane said, "The logical conclusion of the attitude that produces an isolated rape in England

11413-512: Was first performed at the Gate Theatre in 1996. Cleansed premiered at the Royal Court's theatre downstairs in April 1998, and was directed by James Macdonald . This was at the time the most expensive production in the Royal Court's history. Kane stated that the play was partly inspired from reading a part of Roland Barthes 's work A Lover’s Discourse where "[Barthes] says the situation of

11526-458: Was forcing them to go the limits of their theatrical imagination, forcing them into poetic and expressionistic solutions. […] With Cleansed , Kane wrote a play which demanded that its staging be as poetic as its writing." Director of the 2016 National Theatre production of the play, Katie Mitchell , has said "Kane's stage directions request literal violence […] A tongue is cut off with a pair of scissors. Hands are cut off. So how do you do that in

11639-640: Was in the audience and subsequently represented Kane, suggesting she should show her work to the Royal Court Theatre in London. The completed play, directed by James Macdonald , opened at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in 1995. The action is set in a room of a luxurious hotel in Leeds where Ian, a racist and foul-mouthed middle-aged journalist, first tries to seduce and later rapes Cate, an innocent, simple-minded young woman. From its opening in

11752-399: Was just appalled and thought how can he possibly suggest the pain of love is as bad as that. But then the more I thought about it I thought actually I do know what he is saying. It's about the loss of self. And when you lose yourself where do you go? There's nowhere to go, it's actually a kind of madness. And thinking about it I made the connection with Cleansed ." Kane claimed that she based

11865-402: Was motivated by a desire to protect the chastity of women in the court, as emasculation rendered a recipient physically incapable of having sex. While emasculation was a pre-requisite for gaining employment as a palace eunuch, it did not guarantee employment. The emasculation procedure was typically performed by a trained 'knifer', or 'knife expert'. To prepare for the operation, the recipient

11978-418: Was not enough communication between the doctors of these departments and the nurses" and that "I am not seeking financial compensation for the death of my daughter. I want answers as to why she was not given proper care in order that this does not happen to somebody else's daughter." It has been reported that in response to Kane's death there was a minute's silence held on radio in Germany and that theatres in

12091-447: Was one form of genital mutilation practiced by the Skoptsy, a Russian Christian sect. For males, the other form of mutilation available was castration. Females could remove their nipples, breasts, labia majora , labia minora or clitoris . These practices may have begun sometime during the 1760s, after the sect was founded by Kondratii Selivanov, although they were only discovered by the broader community in 1772. They continued up until

12204-655: Was one of the recipients of the V Europe Prize Theatrical Realities awarded to the Royal Court Theatre (with Mark Ravenhill , Jez Butterworth , Conor McPherson , Martin McDonagh ). Though Kane's work never played to large audiences in the UK and was at first dismissed by many newspaper critics, her plays have been widely performed in Europe, Australia and South America. In 2005, the theatre director Dominic Dromgoole wrote that she

12317-499: Was resuscitated and assessed by two psychiatrists. One of the psychiatrists, Nigel Tunstall, said that "it was very clearly the case that [Kane] was intending to kill herself and she was surprised and upset that she had not succeeded" and that she "said she had no intention of killing herself while she remained at King's College Hospital, but in abstract terms she said that at some point she would certainly kill herself." Because of this, Dr Tunstall ordered that Kane should be detained under

12430-461: Was stated that she probably died within three minutes. An inquest was held at Southwark coroner's court to determine the circumstances that resulted in Kane's death. The coroner delivered a verdict of death by suicide. The coroner commented that Kane "was plagued with mental anguish and tormented by thoughts of suicide" and that she "made her choice and she made it at a time when she was suffering from

12543-403: Was the last time I saw her." Shortly after 3:30 a.m. on 20 February a nurse discovered that Kane was not in her hospital bed. The nurse forced open the door to the Brunel ward's toilets where she found Kane's dead body. Kane had hung herself by her neck with her own shoelaces from the hook on the inside of the toilet door. She was 28 years old when she died. At the inquest into her death, it

12656-486: Was the theatre's literary associate. Dromgoole wrote that Kane's death "left a long black cloud hanging over many. A huge amount of anger was felt. Anger at her for robbing us of what we so loved. Anger at those who maltreated her. […] anger directed inward for failing to help her." Dromgoole wrote that he was angry with how Kane had been mistreated by others. He stated that this anger was not aimed at "the press" who he saw as being "held up so easily as scapegoats" but rather it

12769-453: Was the way she wrote it. She couldn't have done it any other way just saying the lines." Sarah Kane's agent, Mel Kenyon, remarked that "If I was going to put my hand on my heart I'd say [Kane] was a far better director than she was an actress". Kane stated that she learnt more about acting from her experience of performing in Cleansed . In 1998 she sent a letter to the playwright Edward Bond , in which she wrote "I now know a) how hard acting

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