Sarah Kane

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Sarah Kane , whose brief life occupied the last quarter of the twentieth century, left (besides monologues) five full-length plays which explore a nightmarish world of violence and sexual brutality. They provoked a strong visceral response through their stark representation of horror and degradation. Some years after her death SK was far more popular and respected among producers, audiences, and critics in Europe than in Britain.
  • BirthName: Sarah Kane
  • Pseudonym: Marie Kelvedon
    Kane used this pseudonym for the first run of her play Crave.

Photograph of Sarah Kane. She is wearing a black button up and has short hair. She is holding an unlt cigarette in her mouth.

Milestones

3 February 1971

SK was born in Essex, one of two children (she had a brother).
Fisher, Iain. “Sarah Kane”. Iain Fisher website.
Bardell, Paula. “The Paradox of Sarah Kane”. All Info About: Sarah Kane.

1994

SK 's first play, Blasted, appeared in print with plays by Karen Hope , David Spencer , and Rod Williams in the second number of a Methuen drama series, Frontline Intelligence: New Plays for the Nineties, edited by Pamela Edwardes ; it was reprinted with Kane's next play, Phaedra's Love, in 1996.
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. 18 July 2011, http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

12 January 1995

SK 's first play, Blasted, opened at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in London. Its raw violence and brutality provoked extreme responses from audiences and critics.
Singer, Annabelle. “Don’t Want to Be This: The Elusive Sarah Kane”. The Drama Review, Vol.
48
, No. 2, 1 June 2004– 2025, pp. 139-71.
142

May 1996

SK 's Phaedra's Love was first performed at the tiny and underfunded
Greig, David, and Sarah Kane. “Introduction”. Complete Plays, Methuen Drama, 2001, p. ix - xviii.
x
Gate Theatre at Notting Hill, which had commissioned it by asking for an adaptation of a European classic.
Kane, Sarah, and David Greig. Complete Plays. Methuen Drama, 2001.
prelims
Stephenson, Heidi, and Natasha Langridge. Rage and Reason: Women Playwrights on Playwriting. Methuen Drama, 1997.
131
Kane, Sarah, and David Greig. Complete Plays. Methuen Drama, 2001.
64

20 February 1999

SK committed suicide by hanging herself in a mental hospital. She was twenty-eight.
“Contemporary Authors”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Centre-LRC.
Greig, David, and Sarah Kane. “Introduction”. Complete Plays, Methuen Drama, 2001, p. ix - xviii.
xvi
Fisher, Iain. “Sarah Kane”. Iain Fisher website.

23 June 2000

SK 's last play, 4.48 Psychosis, which has been described as her 70 minute suicide note,
qtd. in
Singer, Annabelle. “Don’t Want to Be This: The Elusive Sarah Kane”. The Drama Review, Vol.
48
, No. 2, 1 June 2004– 2025, pp. 139-71.
160
was performed posthumously at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs .
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
Aston, Elaine. Feminist Views on the English Stage: Women Playwrights, 1990-2000. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
78
Singer, Annabelle. “Don’t Want to Be This: The Elusive Sarah Kane”. The Drama Review, Vol.
48
, No. 2, 1 June 2004– 2025, pp. 139-71.
159
Kane, Sarah, and David Greig. Complete Plays. Methuen Drama, 2001.
204

Biography

Birth and Background

3 February 1971

SK was born in Essex, one of two children (she had a brother).
Fisher, Iain. “Sarah Kane”. Iain Fisher website.
Bardell, Paula. “The Paradox of Sarah Kane”. All Info About: Sarah Kane.

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