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88-635: 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, 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

176-475: A murder mystery play which is the longest-running West End show , it has by far the longest run of any play in the world, with its 29,500th performance having taken place as of February 2024. Contemporary playwrights in the United States are affected by recent declines in theatre attendance. No longer the only outlet for serious drama or entertaining comedies, theatrical productions must use ticket sales as

264-424: A blind person cannot see at all, and an autistic person may not relate to the world as a non-autistic person. Cases involving infancy and mental disorders as an insanity defense potentially invoke excuses to criminal liability because the accused lack full capacity, and criminal systems provide an overlapping set of provisions which can either deal with such individuals outside the criminal justice system, or if

352-427: A case where a doctor is accused of wrongfully killing a patient during treatment. Hence, there is a baseline of minimum competence that all are expected to meet. This reasonable person is appropriately informed, capable, aware of the law, and fair-minded. This standard can never go down, but it can go up to match the training and abilities of the particular accused. In testing whether the particular doctor has misdiagnosed

440-421: A confrontational style and sensibility of drama termed " in-yer-face theatre ". Sierz originally called Kane "the quintessential in-yer-face writer of 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,

528-465: 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

616-444: A criminal trial is unavoidable, mitigate the extent of liability through the sentencing system following conviction . Notwithstanding, those who have ordinary intellectual capacities are expected to act reasonably given their physical condition. Thus, a court would ask whether a blind reasonable person would have set out to do what the particular blind defendant did. People with physical disabilities rightly wish to be active members of

704-577: 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

792-507: A form of playwright. Outside of the Western world there is Indian classical drama , with one of the oldest known playwrights being Śudraka , whose attributed plays can be dated to the second century BC. The Nāṭya Shāstra , a text on the performing arts from between 500BC-500AD, categorizes playwrights as being among the members of a theatre company, although playwrights were generally the highest in social status, with some being kings. In

880-454: 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

968-466: 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

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1056-768: 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

1144-455: A patient so incompetently that it amounts to a crime, the standard must be that of a reasonable doctor. Those who hold themselves out as having particular skills must match the level of performance expected of people with comparable skills. When engaged in an activity outside their expertise, such individuals revert to the ordinary person standard. This is not to deny that ordinary people might do something extraordinary in certain circumstances, but

1232-419: A person who has "wrought" words, themes, and other elements into a dramatic form—a play. (The homophone with "write" is coincidental.) The first recorded use of the term "playwright" is from 1605, 73 years before the first written record of the term "dramatist". It appears to have been first used in a pejorative sense by Ben Jonson to suggest a mere tradesman fashioning works for the theatre. Jonson uses

1320-635: A playwright, winning awards for his play The Phoenix at both the New York International Fringe Festival in 1999 and the Route 66 American Playwriting Competition in 2000. Today, theatre companies have new play development programs meant to develop new American voices in playwriting. Many regional theatres have hired dramaturges and literary managers in an effort to showcase various festivals for new work, or bring in playwrights for residencies. Funding through national organizations, such as

1408-413: 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 the communication between medical staff be improved by formalising the procedures that related to the risk assessment of patients. However,

1496-501: 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

1584-525: A source of income, which has caused many of them to reduce the number of new works being produced. For example, Playwrights Horizons produced only six plays in the 2002–03 seasons, compared with thirty-one in 1973–74. Playwrights commonly encounter difficulties in getting their shows produced and often cannot earn a living through their plays alone, leading them to take up other jobs to supplement their incomes. Many playwrights are also film makers . For instance, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock began his career as

1672-421: 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 was not enough communication between the doctors of these departments and the nurses" and that "I am not seeking financial compensation for

1760-558: A stricter interpretation of Aristotle, as this long-lost work came to light in the late 15th century. The neoclassical ideal, which was to reach its apogee in France during the 17th century, dwelled upon the unities , of action, place, and time. This meant that the playwright had to construct the play so that its "virtual" time would not exceed 24 hours, that it would be restricted to a single setting, and that there would be no subplots. Other terms, such as verisimilitude and decorum, circumscribed

1848-409: 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 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

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1936-615: Is Hans Sachs (1494–1576) who wrote 198 dramatic works. In England, The Second Shepherds' Play of the Wakefield Cycle is the best known early farce. However, farce did not appear independently in England until the 16th century with the work of John Heywood (1497–1580). Playwright William Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted. Most playwrights of

2024-413: Is imprisonment , unless the criminal is insane (and then in some cases the sentence is indeterminate). The leading statement to describe 'criminal negligence' at common law for the purposes of establishing a test for manslaughter in the law of England and Wales , is that of Lord Hewart CJ in the case of R v Bateman : In explaining to juries the test which they should apply to determine whether

2112-401: Is always based on an assessment of whether the accused had foresight of the prohibited consequences and desired to cause those consequences to occur. The three types of test are: The most culpable mens rea elements will have both foresight and desire on a subjective basis. Negligence arises when, on a subjective test, an accused has not actually foreseen the potentially adverse consequences to

2200-415: Is an objective yardstick against which to measure the culpability of real people. For these purposes, the reasonable person is not an average person: this is not a democratic measure. To determine the appropriate level of responsibility , the test of reasonableness has to be directly relevant to the activities being undertaken by the accused. What the "average person" thinks or might do would be irrelevant in

2288-445: Is an offence that involves a breach of an objective standard of behaviour expected of a defendant. It may be contrasted with strictly liable offences, which do not consider states of mind in determining criminal liability, or offenses that requires mens rea , a mental state of guilt. To constitute a crime , there must be an actus reus (Latin for "guilty act") accompanied by the mens rea (see concurrence ). Negligence shows

2376-449: 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

2464-534: Is still useful to playwrights today is the " French scene ", which is a scene in a play where the beginning and end are marked by a change in the makeup of the group of characters onstage rather than by the lights going up or down or the set being changed. Notable playwrights: Greek theater was alive and flourishing on the island of Crete. During the Cretan Renaissance two notable Greek playwrights Georgios Chortatzis and Vitsentzos Kornaros were present in

2552-600: 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

2640-487: The Ancient Greeks . William Shakespeare is amongst the most famous playwrights in literature, both in England and across the world. The word "play" is from Middle English pleye , from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsperson or builder (as in a wheelwright or cartwright ). The words combine to indicate

2728-406: The Ancient Greeks . These early plays were for annual Athenian competitions among play writers held around the 5th century BC. Such notables as Aeschylus , Sophocles , Euripides , and Aristophanes established forms still relied on by their modern counterparts. We have complete texts extant by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides . The origins of Athenian tragedy remain obscure, though by

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2816-569: 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

2904-600: The National Endowment for the Arts and the Theatre Communications Group , encouraged the partnerships of professional theatre companies and emerging playwrights. Playwrights will often have a cold reading of a script in an informal sitdown setting, which allows them to evaluate their own plays and the actors performing them. Cold reading means that the actors haven't rehearsed the work, or may be seeing it for

2992-577: 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

3080-459: The United States , there may sometimes be a slightly different interpretation for willful blindness.) The degree of culpability is determined by applying a reasonable-person standard. Criminal negligence becomes "gross" when the failure to foresee involves a "wanton disregard for human life" (see the definitions of corporate manslaughter and in many common law jurisdictions of gross negligence manslaughter ). The test of any mens rea element

3168-499: 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

3256-449: The 4th century BCE, Aristotle wrote his Poetics , in which he analyzed the principle of action or praxis as the basis for tragedy. He then considered elements of drama: plot ( μύθος mythos ), character ( ἔθος ethos ), thought ( dianoia ), diction ( lexis ), music ( melodia ), and spectacle ( opsis ). Since the myths on which Greek tragedy were based were widely known, plot had to do with

3344-536: The 5th century it was institutionalised in competitions ( agon ) held as part of festivities celebrating Dionysos (the god of wine and fertility ). As contestants in the City Dionysia's competition (the most prestigious of the festivals to stage drama), playwrights were required to present a tetralogy of plays (though the individual works were not necessarily connected by story or theme), which usually consisted of three tragedies and one satyr play. For

3432-563: 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 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

3520-550: The Middle Ages, the earliest of which is The Play of the Greenwood by Adam de la Halle in 1276. It contains satirical scenes and folk material such as faeries and other supernatural occurrences. Farces also rose dramatically in popularity after the 13th century. The majority of these plays come from France and Germany and are similar in tone and form, emphasizing sex and bodily excretions. The best known playwright of farces

3608-605: The Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and the end of the 17th century, classical ideas were in vogue. As a result, critics of the time mostly rated Shakespeare below John Fletcher and Ben Jonson. This period saw the first professional woman playwright, Aphra Behn . As a reaction to the decadence of Charles II era productions, sentimental comedy grew in popularity. Playwrights like Colley Cibber and Richard Steele believed that humans were inherently good but capable of being led astray. The Italian Renaissance brought about

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3696-462: 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

3784-420: The ancient Greeks, playwriting involved poïesis , "the act of making". This is the source of the English word poet . Despite Chinese Theatre having performers dated back to the 6th century BC with You Meng , their perspective of theatre was such that plays had no other role than "performer" or "actor", but given that the performers were also the ones who invented their performances, they could be considered

3872-404: The arrangement and selection of existing material. Character was determined by choice and by action. Tragedy is mimesis —"the imitation of an action that is serious". He developed his notion of hamartia , or tragic flaw, an error in judgment by the main character or protagonist , which provides the basis for the "conflict-driven" play. There were also a number of secular performances staged in

3960-400: 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 was the last time I saw her." Shortly after 3:30 a.m. on 20 February a nurse discovered that Kane

4048-516: 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 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

4136-414: The community but, if certain types of activity would endanger others, appropriate precautions must be put in place to ensure that the risks are reasonable. Examples of criminally negligent crimes are criminally negligent homicide and negligent endangerment of a child . Usually the punishment for criminal negligence, criminal recklessness, criminal endangerment, willful blindness and other related crimes

4224-465: The death in a way that makes them criminally rather than merely morally responsible. For example, suppose that A, an expert in kayaking, organises an outing for local children who are learning the sport. They travel to a large lake but, after an hour of paddling, they are overtaken by a violent storm and some of the children drown despite all wearing life-preservers. If all the kayaks, paddles and ancillary equipment are shown to have been in good condition,

4312-457: 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 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

4400-406: 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 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

4488-459: 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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4576-517: The first time, and usually, the technical requirements are minimal. The O'Neill Festival offers summer retreats for young playwrights to develop their work with directors and actors. Playwriting collectives like 13P and Orbiter 3 gather members together to produce, rather than develop, new works. The idea of the playwriting collective is in response to plays being stuck in the development process and never advancing to production. Criminal negligence In criminal law , criminal negligence

4664-503: 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

4752-406: 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

4840-486: The latter part of the 16th century. The plays of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Friedrich Schiller , and other Sturm und Drang playwrights inspired a growing faith in feeling and instinct as guides to moral behavior and were part of the German romanticism movement. Aleksandr Ostrovsky was Russia's first professional playwright). Author and playwright Agatha Christie wrote The Moustrap ,

4928-401: The least level of culpability , intention being the most serious, and recklessness being of intermediate seriousness, overlapping with gross negligence . The distinction between recklessness and criminal negligence lies in the presence or absence of foresight as to the prohibited consequences. Recklessness is usually described as a "malfeasance" where the defendant knowingly exposes another to

5016-615: The life and safety of others as to amount to a crime against the State and conduct deserving punishment. For a murder , the mens rea is that of malice aforethought , a deliberate and sometimes premeditated killing. But the larger percentage of deaths result from situations where there is either no intention to injure another, or only an intention to inflict less serious injury. The need is therefore to be able to distinguish between those who happened to be present when another died accidentally or through misadventure, and those who have contributed to

5104-519: 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

5192-519: 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 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

5280-411: 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

5368-469: The negligence, in the particular case, amounted or did not amount to a crime, judges have used many epithets, such as 'culpable', 'criminal', 'gross', 'wicked', 'clear', 'complete'. But, whatever epithet be used and whether an epithet be used or not, in order to establish criminal liability the facts must be such that, in the opinion of the jury, the negligence of the accused went beyond a mere matter of compensation between subjects and showed such disregard for

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5456-484: The ordinary person as an accused will not be at fault if they do not do that extraordinary thing so long as whatever that person does or thinks is reasonable in those circumstances. The more contentious debate has surrounded the issue of whether the reasonable person should be subjectively matched to the accused in cases involving children , and persons with a physical or mental disability . Young and inexperienced individuals may not foresee what an adult might foresee,

5544-407: The period typically collaborated with others at some point, as critics agree Shakespeare did, mostly early and late in his career. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. In England, after the interregnum , and Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, there was a move toward neoclassical dramaturgy. Between

5632-419: The planned actions, and has gone ahead, exposing a particular individual or unknown victim to the risk of suffering injury or loss. The accused is a social danger because they have endangered the safety of others in circumstances where the reasonable person would have foreseen the injury and taken preventive measures. "Reasonable person standard" does not pertain to a real person, but rather a legal fiction . It

5720-465: 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 ,

5808-521: 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 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

5896-471: 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

5984-407: The risk of injury. The fault lies in being willing to run the risk. But criminal negligence is a "misfeasance" or "nonfeasance" (see omission ), where the fault lies in the failure to foresee and so allow otherwise avoidable dangers to manifest. In some cases this failure can rise to the level of willful blindness , where the individual intentionally avoids adverting to the reality of a situation. (In

6072-532: The short film Skin , and two newspaper articles for The Guardian . Born in Brentwood, Essex , and raised by evangelical parents, Kane 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

6160-525: 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. Playwright The earliest playwrights in Western literature with surviving works are

6248-428: The storm had not been forecast by the meteorological services, and it was reasonable for these children to undertake this type of outing given their level of skill/swimming, A will not have liability. But if many of the children were too inexperienced and/or a storm had been forecast, A might well be found liable by a jury. The Criminal Code has a series of offences covering criminal negligence when bodily harm or death

6336-553: The subject matter significantly. For example, verisimilitude limits of the unities. Decorum fitted proper protocols for behavior and language on stage. In France, contained too many events and actions, thus, violating the 24-hour restriction of the unity of time. Neoclassicism never had as much traction in England, and Shakespeare 's plays are directly opposed to these models, while in Italy, improvised and bawdy commedia dell'arte and opera were more popular forms. One structural unit that

6424-441: The word in his Epigram 49, which is thought to refer to John Marston or Thomas Dekker : Jonson described himself as a poet, not a playwright, since plays during that time were written in meter and so were regarded as the province of poets. This view was held as late as the early 19th century. The term "playwright" later again lost this negative connotation. The earliest playwrights in Western literature with surviving works are

6512-565: 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

6600-472: 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

6688-454: 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

6776-417: 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: the lies of worthlessness and futility whispered by an afflicted brain". Neilson suggested that Kane's depression

6864-485: 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

6952-495: 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

7040-560: 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

7128-639: 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

7216-417: 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 was stated that she probably died within three minutes. An inquest was held at Southwark coroner's court to determine

7304-653: 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

7392-460: 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 the Mental Health Act if she attempted to leave the hospital. Kane was admitted to

7480-421: 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

7568-486: 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

7656-497: 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 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

7744-490: 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 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

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