TheatreAddict.com - Bakersfield Drama Blog

Even days after seeing the show, flashes of it come at you like a beautiful nightmare. I took a bath and pictured my hands and feet being cut off. I had flashes of imagery from the play, feeling like I was being electro-shocked myself. But later, the incredible dialouge stayed with me just as much as the sex and violence.

I spent Sunday morning reading about Sarah Kane online and crying. All at once I feel like I had made a very special friend and tragically...lost her. I understood what Ryan Watts, a cast member, meant when he said he had read the play 50 times and was still baffled and intrigued. At the time I had thought "well, if you had read it that many times and still can't tell me what it means then it's probably just meant to be confusing." Not so.

I urge you to do what I did. Go see the show, come home and read about Sarah Kane and try to get some insight into what you saw by discovering the playwright and reading other viewpoints and interpreations, and if you can go and see it again. Be warned that the show contains graphic sex & violence, but even those are stirring in ways you will not expect.

In episode 6 of the podcast I will read some reviews and responses to the show, so check that out for a bit of insight. I will leave you now with a short interview with director Roger Mathey and some reccomended reading on Sarah Kane & Cleansed.

Cleansed Interview

TheatreAddict.com: In your director's notes you talk briefly about being introduced to Sarah Kane's work and feeling compelled to bring it to the stage. Can you tell us a little more about your experience and why it was so meaningful to you?

Roger Mathey: One of my favorite underappreciated playwrights is Tom Eyen who wrote "The White Whore and the Bit Player". Most of my theatre life has been my attempts to show the darkers side of life in the hopes that the audience (and myself) will learn something from someone else's pain and strive to grow from that pain. And I was called on this by Jeremiah Heitman who then gave me a book of Sarah Kane's plays. When I read the works of Sarah Kane, I felt I had found another playwright speaking to me about their pain in the most graphic way they could. I tend (as do many theatre denizens) to use theatre as a sort of therapy... it is my tool to help me cope with the worls. When I write or direct or act, I am realising some of my pain for all to see. I found this from Sarah Kane... and her pain seemed infinitely more than most people I know. To the point that they weren't therapy enough for her to release her pain. She found another way. That is a way I cannot take. I've tried once and it didn't stick. I relate on many levels to Sarah Kane's pain and in doing so I found it a blessing to be able to release some of my own through her work. I, too, need to be cleansed of my own darkness every now and then and with the dark feelings I have had of late, this therapy was overdue.

TA: Out of the many amazing plays and other works in SK's repertoire, why did you choose "Cleansed"?

RM: Many of them I felt I couldn't do justice to. And with "Cleansed" I found her speaking of a subject that I feel strongly about...love. She is an amazing writer who asks a lot out of the people who will do her work. It's not just a play. It's art.

TA: I feel blessed that this art was brought into my life by this experience, I'm sure you and others feel the same. Is there any chance you might pitch another script by Kane at the Empty Space or direct another of her shows in the future?

RM: I don't know. Anything is possible. I like many of her works and when I feel the need to speak out again through her words and know that I can do them the justice they deserve with the right people who will show them the respect they have earned, then maybe I will do more Sarah Kane works.

_______________________________________________________________

Once you have digested "Cleansed", here is some suggested reading for you.

Cleansed @ Arcola Theatre, London

Cleansed by George Hunka

Suicide Art? She's better than that -Mark Ravenhill

posted by TheatreAddict.com  # 3:55 PM