Destroyed

Destroyed (original title: Blasted ) is a play of Sarah Kane.

The topic of Anéantis is in connection with the appearance of an extremely tragic event, which is “the war”. This one will involve various experiments covering several subjects, like the life and death, the physical and mental disease, safety and the war, passion in love and brutal sexuality, the romanticism and the commonplace, and finally, the weakness and the will. It is the history of an impossible love and thus of a violence of couple; of a major alienation, which strikes the legionaries of the civil war as well as the population as they are likely to conquer. Dialogs and actions tangle up, are complementary and grow rich mutually to give to the unit a new depth of field.

The characters are three. There are a man, often undressed, being called Ian, in love with a woman prénommant Cate, and a soldier, vêtu of a lattice and holding a machine-gun in its hands, symbolizing the war. The part is presented in two halves. First half exposes the daily dead loss, which is also that of the company. Second half indicates the reality of the posthumous company, before purification. It also indicates the ordinary ontological tragedy.

The history is the following one: all starts most naturally possible in an impersonal place. Ian and Cate are in the room of a large hotel being located in a metropolis. Both have a mental disease and are unhappy. Cate is, moreover, epileptic. This improbable couple seeks an exit with its passion, by the sex, violence, and beyond death. Whereas Cate is absent, a second man appears. It is about a soldier, incarnating the war. This one violates Ian and eats the eyes to him. The violence of outside emerges then. A bomb explodes exhausting, breaking the place. This unexpected event involves the characters and the part in a chaotic depression. In spite of the events, Ian manages nevertheless to kill the soldier. Cate re-appears then with a baby who dies of hunger. Stripped of all, Ian devours the corpse of the baby. After a few days of anguish, he dies, only.

Elements of the decoration:

In the first part, one discovers a vast hotel room, with a great bed located in the middle of the scene. The room is luminous; an yellow-orange color invades the part, which makes environment hot and pleasant. Two doors are at each end of the scene. That of left gives access the bathroom whom one does not see but that one imagines (one hears the noise of water who runs), and that of right-hand side corresponds to the main door of the room by where the characters come, and set out again then. A white mini-bar is near to the bed. The room is decorated in a simple and elegant way. In the second part, one finds the room of luxury completely devastated. The decoration was destroyed in order to reveal a believed plate. Branches of tree, sheets, dust and remains entirely recover the ground, and thus represent the metaphysical violence of the explosion. The bed is completely turned over. The light gave place to the darkness. Environment is radically opposite here. The atmosphere is rather dark and morose. To the back of the scene, the rain falls abundantly. It accentuates the lugubrious side of the history.

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