Reading List / Can o' Worms

Slay over at Forte sent out an e-mail (which I, like a tool, neglected to respond to) in which he asked people to send him a list of playwrights he should get to know. He posts on the result here.

Here is one thing that caught my eye:

BUT, there's one name that needs mentioned first and foremost. Sarah Kane must be the most influential writer of the last decade or so. Almost everyone named at least one of her plays. Many people simply suggested reading her complete works. I read them as they became available, starting with Blasted in Yale's Theater journal, so I'm feeling fairly natty.

I find this... weird. I mean, Sarah Kane wrote a couple of good plays, and I've defended her plenty of times against detractors... but...on everyone's list? Really? I think this owes a lot more to her trendiness than her actual quality. But then again, I only really like her two final plays, so maybe I'm a philistine.

I go back and forth on Kane. I think she has an interesting poetry to her language, but there are times when I feel like those of us (including me) who like her just want to fetishize misery for its own sake. I guess what I'm saying is while I have defended Kane from that critique before, I actually think that critique holds more water than I want to admit. But at the same time, her skill and poetry as a writer often get disregarded by those who want to attack the content of her plays.

Comments

[Zack Calhoon]

A lot of people say that she wrote purely for shock value. I disagree. I believe that she was showing us how she saw the world.

As theatre artists, we ache for an original voice that is telling truths, even if they are harsh ones. It doesn't surprise me at all that she is on so many people's lists.

[Jaime]

Trendy or not, reading her work exploded my concept of what theatre could be. I've had a few experiences like that - Blasted, Angels in America, Kid Simple, Melancholy Play, Killer Joe - and I don't know if that sort of thing is limited to college, but as trendy as any of those writers might be, the plays still had a huge impact on me.

And here I was thinking I didn't have any plays to suggest. I just can't imagine reading plays in my spare time.

[George Hunka]

Kane may have been one of the most courageous and talented writers of the past 25 years, simply for her ability to render her own consciousness of the pain of the world in eminently stageworthy terms. I don't think you can divorce the poetry of the plays from their content -- the poetry emerges from that content, is part and parcel of her body of work, which is without compromise. (As Beckett reminds us, content is form, and form content.)

[isaac]

Hey all,

Jaime, I'm very interested in what about Blasted (admittedly my least favorite Kane play) exploded your ideas about theater... not asking to argue with you, just interested in finding out.

George, I think on this one we'll have to agree to disagree, to avoid the inevitable "SHE'S OVERRATED!" "YOU'RE A PHILISTINE!" fight that conversations about Kane seem to inevitably lead to...

[Jaime]

It was spring of my freshman year, that fortuitious (and only, in my college career) playwrighting class. I had never encountered a play so visceral, so gripping, so horrific. It was probably my first encounter with 'impossible' stage directions. It was definitely my first encounter with such raw pain, of the writer or characters, in a playscript. That same semester I first read Paula Vogel, Sarah Ruhl, and Suzan-Lori Parks. It was a good few months for that sort of thing.

[Joshua James]

He said "almost" - I didn't recommend her plays . . . nothing against her, she just ain't on my list.

Becket was.

[Kyle]

I only know two of the plays from productions I've seen. I found CLEANSED frustrating, and 4:48 PSYCHOSIS seems like it could vary so much from production to production I don't know what to make of that. She's certainly impassioned, and a lot of the writing and ideas are rich, but I'm still waiting to be convinced. Maybe I'll go buy a volume of her plays. Isaac, if BLASTED's your least favorite, which one's your favorite?

[isaac]

My two favorites are CRAVE and 4.48 PSYCHOSIS. I think SKIN is actually her worst work (it's a teleplay tho)

[Marisela]

I replied to Slay's email and listed Sarah Kane. I've only been writing theatre for four years now and was introduced to Sarah Kane early on.

As a poet I was just floored by the idea of bringing my poetics into a play: imagery especially. In Cleansed when sunflowers burst through the floor and bloomed I remember the awe I felt for the writing.

That play definitely made an impression on me and taught me not to restrict my imagination just because it's a play to be performed on stage.