Bombed
Bombed is the first play by British playwright Sarah Kane . It premiered at London's Royal Court Theater in January 1995 .
action
The play is divided into five scenes, all of which take place in a hotel room in Leeds . Dramatis personae are the journalist Ian, his former lover Cate and a soldier. Ian is terminally ill and desires Cate, if only sexually. Cate, on the other hand, doesn't want to hear from Ian anymore, sometimes even finds him repulsive. Ian coerces the stuttering Cate into sexual acts and rapes her. Ian is paranoid and thinks that people who want to kill him are ambushing him at the hotel. In fact, a soldier breaks into the hotel room after Cate escaped through the bathroom window. The soldier tells Ian about the atrocities of the war and exercises them on Ian by undressing him, handcuffing him, sucking his eyes and eating and raping him. He then shoots himself. Cate returns with a baby that she wants to take care of. A short time later the baby dies. Cate leaves the hotel again to get food in town. In the time she's gone, Ian eats the dead baby. Cate comes back with food at the end and feeds the helpless Ian.
shape
Sarah Kane shows extreme forms of abuse, addiction and humiliation in Zerbombt . These are not only represented by the events, but can also be found in the language, which consists of unfinished sentences that are spoken past one another. The three characters are each caught in conflict and at the same time exposed to a real conflict, the civil war and its effects. Nevertheless, Kane manages to let the protagonists still feel feelings of care, pity or sadness, as in the scene in which Cate feeds the blind and humiliated Ian, her former rapist. Kane's theme of love acquires a desperate and fatalistic aftertaste from the connection between cruelty and violence, and its portrayal caused heated controversy.
Reactions
Sarah Kane was accused of wanton one-dimensional provocation, as was the play's extreme naturalism . Critics accused her of a childlike desire to shock; others found the construct of a destructive relationship in connection with the destruction of the real world to be ingenious. The result were numerous Europe-wide performances of Zerbombt .