This Student Edition of Sarah Kane's seminal play Blasted features expert and helpful annotation and is an accessible guide for anyone studying or performing the play. This includes a scene-by-scene summary, a detailed commentary on the dramatic, social and political context, and on the themes, characters, language and structure of the play, as well a list of suggested reading, questions for further study and a review of performance history. In 1995 Sarah Kane's first full-length play Blasted sent shockwaves throughout the theatrical world. Making front-page headlines, the play outraged critics with its depiction of rape, torture and violence in civil war. However, from being roundly condemned by the critics ('this disgusting feast of filth' Daily Mail ), the play is now considered a seminal work of European theatre and has defined an entire era of stage writing. Blasted' s canonical status reflects the raw beauty and terror of Kane's writing. Probing the brutality people inflict upon one another, the suffering and violation, the play also looks at the role of love and the redemption it offers. Unafraid to delve into darkness, this is a provocative, fragmenting piece full of significance and power. “Sarah Kane's first play was hugely controversial when staged at the Royal Court in 1995 and, if the intervening years have diminished its shock value a little, it remains a deeply divisive piece about the reality of violence, a sensory onslaught will prompt walkouts but also inspire epiphanies.” ― Henry Hitchings, Evening Standard (London), 29.10.10 “Blasted is undoubtedly a landmark of modern theatre, its moral force at once uncanny and explosive.” ― Henry Hitchings, Evening Standard (London), 29.10.10 “Kane's play is wild, but artful too.” ― Susannah Clapp, Observer, 31.10.10 “this is a play of exceptional power and prescience.” ― Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 1.11.10 “now rightly regarded as a milestone in British theatre.” ― Paul Callan, Daily Express, 5.11.10 “Twenty years after it opened to critical incomprehension and outrage, there's no way that Sarah Kane's Blasted can be dismissed as a naive shocker. It's far too smartly crafted for that. The play wears its magpie borrowings on its sleeve - from Brecht to Beckett to Pinter - and still rings loudly with the clarity of Kane's own bell-like Cassandra voice.” ― Guardian “ Blasted emerges yet again as a devastating achievement, a play of furious passion and thrilling theatrical audacity . . . a landmark play of undiminished power.” ― The Times Sarah Kane was born in 1971. Her first play, Blasted , was produced at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in 1995. Her second play, Phaedra's Love , was produced at the Gate Theatre in 1996. In April 1998, Cleansed was produced at the Royal Court Theatre Downstairs, and in September 1998, Crave was produced by Paines Plough and Bright Ltd at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh. Her last play, 4.48 Psychosis , premiered at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs in June 2000. Her short film, Skin , produced by British Screen/Channel Four, premiered in June 1997. Sarah Kane died in 1999, and is now recognised as one of the most influential voices in modern European theatre. Ken Urban is a playwright based in New York City. Jenny Stevens was an Associate Lecturer for the Open University and currently combines educational consultancy work with teaching and writing. She is the co-author with Pamela Bickley of Essential Shakespeare: The Arden Guide to Text and Interpretation (2013) and Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama: Text and Performance (2016). Chris Megson is Senior Lecturer in Drama and Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has taught and published widely in the field of modern drama, and is editor of The Methuen Drama Book of Naturalist Plays . Other works include: Get Real: Documentary Theatre Past and Present (with Alison Forsyth, 2011), and Modern British Playwriting: The 70s: Voices, Documents, New Interpretations (2012). Matthew Nichols graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2003 and has been teaching and leading outstanding Drama and Performing Arts departments for over a decade. Matthew also has extensive experience at a senior level with several exam boards, and was responsible for writing one of the reformed GCSE qualifications in Drama. In addition, Matthew works with schools, colleges, universities and theatres across the country. Matthew is a successful and sought after Drama education consultant, and was one of the founders of Drama Defined, which specialises in delivering high quality Drama education courses to staff and students. Matthew is currently Head of Drama at Manchester Grammar School. You can reach him on Twitter @matthew_drama.