Cleansed
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Cleansed'' is the third play by the English playwright Sarah Kane. It was first performed in 1998 at the Royal Court Theatre Downstairs in London. The play is set in a
university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...
which (according to the blurb of the published script) is operating as "an institution designed to rid society of its undesirables" where "a group of inmates try to save themselves through love" while under the rule of the
sadistic Sadism may refer to: * Sadomasochism, the giving or receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation * Sadistic personality disorder, an obsolete term proposed for individuals who derive pleasure from the s ...
Tinker. When the play premiered at the Royal Court in April 1998, Kane played the part of Grace for the last three performances because of an injury that the original actress suffered. It is sometimes claimed that Tinker was named after the theatre critic for British newspaper ''
The Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publishe ...
'',
Jack Tinker Jack Tinker (15 February 1938 – 28 October 1996) was an English theatre critic. Tinker made his reputation on the '' Brighton Evening Argus'', before becoming theatre critic for the ''Daily Mail'' in 1972 where he worked for twenty-four yea ...
, whose review of Kane's first play ''
Blasted ''Blasted'' is the first play by the British author Sarah Kane. It was first performed in 1995 at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in London. Synopsis The play is set in an expensive hotel room in Leeds. Ian, a foul-mouthed middle-aged tabloid ...
'' was headlined "this disgusting feast of filth", but there does not appear to be any evidence of Kane confirming this. Sarah Kane's brother and executor of her estate, Simon Kane, in 2005 remarked that "overseas many, many people think that ''Cleansed'' is Sarah's best play."Audio recording of the post-show discussion of the 2005 production of ''Cleansed'' at the Arcola theatre. Hosted by Aleks Sierz with discussion from directors Dominic Dromgoole and Sean Holmes, academic Graham Saunders and Sarah Kane's brother Simon Kane.
/ref>


Synopsis

In the first scene, a timid Graham approaches Tinker, who appears to be a drug dealer. He says he 'wants out' and also asks for drugs. Tinker refuses. They then have an argument about whether or not they are friends. Tinker eventually injects Graham with drugs and he overdoses and dies. Rod and Carl sit in a room together, Carl asks Rod if he can have his ring as a
proposal of marriage A marriage proposal is an event where one person in a relationship asks for the other's hand in marriage. If accepted, it marks the initiation of engagement, a mutual promise of later marriage. It often has a ritual quality. Traditional propo ...
. Rod initially refuses. Carl promises to always love him, never betray him, and never lie to him. Rod is cynical. Rod claims that Carl does not even know his real name, and states that he would never die for Carl. Carl is not fazed and keeps asking for the ring. Rod doesn't surrender the ring but admits that he loves him. They kiss. Grace enters the hospital demanding her brother, Graham's, clothes. The dialogue between her and Tinker imply that her twin brother, Graham, has died. Tinker brings Robin in, who is wearing Graham's clothes. The two switch clothing, with Grace wearing her brother's clothes and Robin wearing the dress Grace came in with (Robin was originally written as a boy but is sometimes played by a girl). After a psychotic break triggered by her brother's lingering scent, Grace is admitted into the hospital. Grace asks Robin to write her father for her, but Robin reveals he cannot write. In the next scene, Tinker beats Carl, wanting him to admit that he and Rod are romantically involved. He sodomizes Carl with a long pole, threatening to shove it through his body entirely. Carl gives up Rod's name and apologizes to Rod for it. Tinker then cuts out Carl's tongue and makes him swallow Rod's ring. Grace has begun to hallucinate her brother. Stage directions and dialogue between them throughout the play imply that they had an incestuous relationship. Haunted by Graham, Grace tries to teach Robin how to read. Robin states his love for her, but Grace rejects him. Tinker comes into the room, tears out the writing in Robin's notebook, and leaves again. He goes and cuts off Carl's hands in front of Rod, who lays there and comforts him. Tinker goes to see an
exotic dancer A stripper or exotic dancer is a person whose occupation involves performing striptease in a public adult entertainment venue such as a strip club. At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at a bachelor party or other private event. M ...
, known simply as Woman, in a booth. He attempts to
masturbate Masturbation is the sexual stimulation of one's own genitals for sexual arousal or other sexual pleasure, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation may involve hands, fingers, everyday objects, sex toys such as vibrators, or combination ...
, but gets upset and leaves. Rod sits in a room with Carl, remorsefully crying. Tinker enters and cuts off Carl's feet. Robin buys a box of chocolates for Grace, who had mentioned that her previous boyfriend had bought her chocolates. Tinker confiscates the box of chocolates and questions Robin about them, who says they are for Grace. Tinker stands above him and throws chocolates on the ground towards him, demanding that he eats them. Crying, Robin is force-fed the whole box of chocolates. In the next scene, Rod is crying, still, as Carl crawls up to him. They embrace, and then have sex. Rod vows never to lie to him, never to betray him, and to always love him. Tinker enters the room after they are finished, and slits Rod's throat in front of Carl, who holds him as he dies. Grace and Robin sit together with Graham looking on. Robin works on counting the number of days in his 30-year sentence. Upset that Grace is not listening, Robin takes off the stockings he has been wearing and ties them around his neck. Grace continues not to pay attention, and Robin hangs himself. Grace gets a
sex change Sex change is a natural or artificial process in which an individual's sex is changed. Sex change may also refer to: Biology and medicine *Sex reassignment therapy *Sex reassignment surgery *Sequential hermaphroditism, a phenomenon whereby some ...
while in the hospital. She arrives onstage with bandages on her groin and breasts. Tinker says she's a lovely man, just like her brother. Carl awakes from the bed behind her, touching his groin. Upon the realization that his genitals were cut off and grafted onto Grace, he starts to cry. Tinker goes and has sex with the Woman, declaring his love for her. In the final scene, Grace sits on stage with Carl, who is now wearing her dress. She speaks to Graham until she realizes he is not there. She thanks Tinker as Carl begins to cry again. Grace and Carl are alone on stage, when, finally, the sun comes out.


Development

Sarah Kane stated that she "started riting ''Cleansed''before ''
Blasted ''Blasted'' is the first play by the British author Sarah Kane. It was first performed in 1995 at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in London. Synopsis The play is set in an expensive hotel room in Leeds. Ian, a foul-mouthed middle-aged tabloid ...
'' was even staged" and that "it took three years to finish it." Kane's friend and fellow playwright
Mark Ravenhill Mark Ravenhill (born 7 June 1966) is an English playwright, actor and journalist. Ravenhill is one of the most widely performed playwrights in British theatre of the late-twentieth and twenty-first centuries. His major plays include ''Shoppin ...
has said "Kane told me she wrote ''Cleansed'' when she was in love" and that the play " as notwritten by a person who knew she would commit suicide." Kane sent a draft of the script to the playwright Edward Bond. In a letter that Bond sent to Kane in September 1997, he wrote how he suspected that "''Cleansed'' is even more powerful than 'Blasted''because it takes any two or three minutes of ''Blasted'' and subjects them to great pressure." According to Kane's agent, Mel Kenyon, The Royal Court theatre "commissioned 'Cleansed''quite quickly, although again it took them a long time to put it on – in fact it took them so long they had to renew the rights after twelve months." Kane claimed that she had written ''Cleansed'' specifically as a play that would only work as a piece of theatre and could not be adapted to other dramatic mediums "I made the deliberate decision to write something that couldn't be film or television. Some people will argue that it can't be theatre either, but I want to stretch the theatrical language. Theatre might not be hip and cool, but at least there isn't any direct censorship, and you're never going to have that with film or TV". Artistic influences The play was partly inspired by
Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popula ...
' work '' A Lover's Discourse''. Kane commented that "There's a point in ''A Lover's Discourse'' when he says the situation of a rejected lover is not unlike the situation of a prisoner in Dachau. And when I read it I was just appalled and thought how can he possibly suggest the pain of love is as bad as that. But then the more I thought about it I thought actually I do know what he is saying. It's about the loss of self. And when you lose yourself where do you go? There's nowhere to go, it's actually a kind of madness. And thinking about it I made the connection with ''Cleansed''." Kane claimed that she based the structure of ''Cleansed'' on the play ''
Woyzeck ''Woyzeck'' () is a stage play written by Georg Büchner. Büchner wrote the play between July and October 1836, yet left it incomplete at his death in February 1837. The play first appeared in 1877 in a heavily edited version by Karl Emil Fr ...
'' by
Georg Büchner Karl Georg Büchner (17 October 1813 – 19 February 1837) was a German dramatist and writer of poetry and prose, considered part of the Young Germany movement. He was also a revolutionary and the brother of physician and philosopher Ludwig Büch ...
. She also directed a production of ''Woyzeck'' at the
Gate Theatre The Gate Theatre is a theatre on Cavendish Row in Dublin, Ireland. It was founded in 1928. History Beginnings The Gate Theatre was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammóir with Daisy Bannard Cogley and Gearóid Ó Lochlai ...
, Notting Hill in 1997. Other inspirations include
Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
's ''
Twelfth Night ''Twelfth Night'', or ''What You Will'' is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Vi ...
'',
August Strindberg Johan August Strindberg (, ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than sixty p ...
's ''
The Ghost Sonata ''The Ghost Sonata'' ( sv, Spöksonaten, links=no) is a play in three acts by the Swedish playwright August Strindberg. Written in 1907, it was first produced at Strindberg's Intimate Theatre in Stockholm on 21 January 1908. Since then, it has be ...
'',
Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...
's ''
The Trial ''The Trial'' (german: Der Process, link=no, previously , and ) is a novel written by Franz Kafka in 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously on 26 April 1925. One of his best known works, it tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and p ...
'' and George Orwell's ''
Nineteen Eighty-Four ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also stylised as ''1984'') is a dystopian social science fiction novel and cautionary tale written by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and fina ...
''. Grace's line directed at Graham "Love me or kill me" is taken from
John Ford John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...
's tragedy ''
'Tis Pity She's a Whore ''Tis Pity She's a Whore'' (original spelling: ''Tis Pitty Shee's a Who'' 'ore'') is a tragedy written by John Ford. It was first performed or between 1629 and 1633, by Queen Henrietta's Men at the Cockpit Theatre. The play was first publ ...
''. The line is said in Ford's play by the characters Bologna and Annabella who, like Grace and Graham in ''Cleansed'', are siblings that are engaged in an incestuous relationship with each other. Abandoned 'war' trilogy At one point Kane planned for ''Cleansed'' to form the second part of a loose trilogy on the subject of war, with the first part being ''
Blasted ''Blasted'' is the first play by the British author Sarah Kane. It was first performed in 1995 at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in London. Synopsis The play is set in an expensive hotel room in Leeds. Ian, a foul-mouthed middle-aged tabloid ...
''. Kane explained in a 1997 interview that "The link between 'Blasted'' and ''Cleansed''is thematic rather than narrative for the simple reason that everyone at the end of ''Blasted'' is dead. 'Cleansed'' isa completely different play in every way. The trilogy will eventually amount to three responses to war." However, she then said to the interviewer "I've changed my mind about what the trilogy is about just in that second. They are not about war at all but about faith, hope and love in the context of war ''Blasted'' is about hope. ''Cleansed'' is about love. Scrap the bit before the war. It's suddenly become clear to me." It was originally thought that the final part of this supposed trilogy was incomplete due to Kane's untimely death in 1999. However, according to Simon Kane (who is Sarah's brother and the executor of her estate) she only wrote "a very rough first draft" of the third play under the working title of "''Viva Death''" but she "abandoned the idea" as she thought it had too many similarities to her previous work and "she didn't want to repeat herself". Another reason why ''Viva Death'' might have been abandoned is because, according to Nils Tabert who was the German translator of ''Cleansed'', Sarah Kane had purposely moved away from creating representations of violence when she wrote her next play '' Crave'': "she called from Edinburgh at some stage saying 'I'm past violence – I'm really sick of it. It's becoming like '' Trainspotting'' with film – so marketable and boring and I don't want to deal with it anymore.'"


Staging


Stage directions

The play is notable for its many difficult to achieve
stage directions In theatre, blocking is the precise staging of actors to facilitate the performance of a play, ballet, film or opera. Historically, the expectations of staging/blocking have changed substantially over time in Western theater. Prior to the movemen ...
which have been described as "impossible". Examples include: "Tinker ''produces a large pair of scissors and cuts off'' Carls tongue''" (Scene Four). "''A sunflower bursts through the floor and grows above their heads''" (Scene Six). "''The rats carry'' Carls feet away''" (Scene Fourteen). Sarah Kane said "There's a Jacobean play with the stage direction 'Her spirit rises from her body and walks away, leaving her body behind.' Anyway,
Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
has a bear running across the stage in '' A Winter's Tale'', and his stage craft was perfect". Sarah Kane's friend and fellow playwright, David Greig, wrote about the play's stage directions in his introduction to ''Sarah Kane: Complete Plays'':
"Theatrically, ''Cleansed'' is a daring challenge. It's physicalisation of lyrical imagery raises the same question that dogs Kane's first three plays: how do-able are they? This is a question that goes to the heart of Kane's writing. Every one of her plays asks the director to make radical staging decisions In a Kane play the author makes demands but she does not make solutions. Kane believed passionately that if it was possible to imagine something, it was possible to represent it. By demanding an interventionist and radical approach from her directors she was forcing them to go the limits of their theatrical imagination, forcing them into poetic and expressionistic solutions. With ''Cleansed'', Kane wrote a play which demanded that its staging be as poetic as its writing."
Director of the 2016 National Theatre production of the play,
Katie Mitchell Katrina Jane Mitchell (born 23 September 1964) is an English theatre director. Life and career Mitchell was born in Reading, Berkshire, raised in Hermitage, Berkshire, and educated at Oakham School. Upon leaving Oakham, she went up to Mag ...
, has said "Kane's stage directions request literal violence A tongue is cut off with a pair of scissors. Hands are cut off. So how do you do that in a way that is not symbolic?"


Sarah Kane's performance as Grace

Towards the end of the production's run actress Suzan Sylvester was unable to perform as Grace due to being injured. Subsequently, two performances of the play were cancelled but the last three performances went ahead with Sarah Kane portraying the role of Grace instead. Actor Daniel Evans, who played Robin, said that Sylvester "injured her back during one of the flying sequences". However, Sarah Kane and director James MacDonald claimed the injury was a result of Sylvester trying to pull her dog off another dog. Kane explained:
"There are rumours circulating that I pushed an actress downstairs. It's not true. Her dog was trying to have sex with another dog in a park. And she was puling it off and slipped a disc. That is honestly what happened. And so we sort of sat there for two days going "what are we going to do? Could it be pushed back in place?” but the problem was that she had to be flown halfway up a wall and do all sorts of extraordinary things, which is just not possible to do with a slipped disc. So we were going to close, at which point I got very depressed and thought: "I can't quite bear for the play to end in this way". And in a moment of rashness I said "well, look, I know the lines. I could do it". And the next thing I knew I was being flown halfway up a wall going: "Nah, I can't do this...” But in the end, I did the last three nights. And it was amazing."
Director James MacDonald said that while rehearsing with Kane in the role they had reworked "the bit in which the actress used to be thrown up against the wall and beaten up" as "we couldn't risk a writer". ''The Guardian'' reported that "Despite the fact that one insensitive member of the audience laughed himself silly when Kane's starring role was announced before the show, the playwright acquitted herself admirably in a role that offers nowhere to hide. It's even possible – at a stretch – to see the play's climatic stitching of a penis to her character's crotch as a symbol of the success of this audacious theatrical transplant." Actor Daniel Evans said that Kane "learnt the lines and went on with almost no rehearsal – and she blew us all away. She was fearless and connected. The performance required her to dance, to fly, to remove all her clothes – and she did it without blinking." He also said "She was brilliant – extraordinary and above all raw. I always said that she made us look like actors, because she was so raw. She wasn't acting in the accepted sense of that term and any acting next door to that just seems like huge acting." Evans has also stated that "I consider that one of the great privileges of my life having acted alongside her as well as being in her plays." Kane's performance was also praised by actor Stuart McQuarrie, who played Tinker. McQuarrie said "to have acted with Sarah when she took over for those last performances were some of the most extraordinary nights I'll ever have in the theatre. Her delivery was just perfect. That's how we all ought to have been doing it in – that was the way she wrote it. She couldn't have done it any other way just saying the lines." Sarah Kane's agent, Mel Kenyon, remarked that "If I was going to put my hand on my heart I'd say
ane Ane or ane may refer to: * Āne, a village in Latvia * Ane, Netherlands, a village in Overijssel, Netherlands, also ** Battle of Ane (1227), a battle fought near the village * -ane, a suffix in organic chemistry, or specifically ** Alkanes, whi ...
was a far better director than she was an actress". Kane stated that she learnt more about acting from her experience of performing in ''Cleansed''. In 1998 she sent a letter to the playwright Edward Bond, in which she wrote "I now know a) how hard acting is and b) how easy it is. I'm taking no more crap from directors about what is and isn't possible in performance. It can be such a simple thing, in fact I think it's the simplicity that makes it difficult, difficult but not complicated." Kane elaborated on this realisation of hers in a 1998 interview at Royal Holloway University:
"I can't talk about all acting, but what ''Cleansed'' asked for was extreme simplicity. And that's a very very difficult thing to do when you're standing in front of 400 people with no clothes on. Be simple Your instinct is to run away. But actually It's a very simple thing. What do I want? What do I feel? And How do I enable myself to feel that? I also learnt how difficult it is to do that, particularly in a play like ''Cleansed'' where you kind of disappear through a hole in the stage and you have precisely three and a half seconds to remove all your clothes, run around the back of the stage and get into a thing and come whizzing up through another hole. And I think at one point I said to one of the other actors: "God, this is really really hard isn't it?” And he said “''Yes, it is.''”"


Initial reception


Audience response

The first production of ''Cleansed'' was attended by low audience numbers, with it reportedly playing to an average of just 14 percent of the theatre's audience capacity. At an interview and Q&A session in 1998 at Royal Holloway University, Kane said:
"most good plays are only really liked in retrospect When ''Cleansed'' was on at the Royal Court there was one point we were playing to very very small audiences. I saw, God knows what it was on, but there was this bit of old TV footage fsome actors who were in ''
Serjeant Musgrave's Dance ''Serjeant Musgrave's Dance, An Un-historical Parable'' is a play by English playwright John Arden, written in 1959 and premiered at the Royal Court Theatre on October 22 of that year. In Arden's introductory note to the text, he describes it as ...
''. One of the most brilliant plays of the last hundred years. And one of the actors was saying "You know, we don't understand it. We think it's a really good play and last night no one came". Literally no one turned up to see it. So how did it become such a classic, which it has. To me I think it's kind of, anything which no one turns up
o see O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), plu ...
at some point is bound to turn out to be quite good. And anything that sells to packed out audiences, there's probably something wrong with it. There's probably a real problem there".
According to critic
Aleks Sierz Aleks Sierz is a British theatre critic. He is known for coining the term " In-yer-face theatre", which was the title of a book he published in 2001. Sierz was educated at Manchester University and holds a PhD from Westminster University. He wo ...
in his book ''In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today'', when he saw the play "The audience, many of whom were gay, was very small but appreciative. People loved the play's gender confusions, laughing at Robin's clumsiness as he and Grace swap clothes, and were also gripped by the raw emotion onstage; only one person walked out." However, this seems to be contradicted by critic Graham Saunders who said "I gather ''Cleansed'' was not the most audience friendly of plays and sometimes got a hostile reaction" when interviewing actor Stuart McQuarrie, who originated the role of Tinker. In response McQuarrie said the following:
"We regularly got booed especially towards the end when they saw the sewed up penis on Grace. I remember one particular time – again right at the end of the performance and the audience was clapping and someone shouted out, 'boo! What's it all about?' And what I desperately wanted to do was climb down and go into the audience to find him and bring him up onstage and try to explain the play, but then I'm glad I didn't because it would've been a terrible thing to do, because I really respect that guy for making his feelings known when everyone else may have been clapping out of duty. There was another occasion when people were just uncontrollably laughing, and again I had to just try and get rid of the anger and just carry on, because when it happens during a show it's often not the real feelings of these people. In a way it's gratifying to get an effect – even if that effect is sometimes negative. I think many people came away from ''Cleansed'' thinking 'what the fuck was that about. It was atrocious. It was awful.' I remember some friends of mine came to see it and they just couldn't say anything."


Major productions

World Premiere (London, 1998) 30 April 1998 at the Royal Court Theatre, Downstairs.
Directed by James Macdonald. *Graham – Martin Marquez *Tinker –
Stuart McQuarrie Stuart McQuarrie (born 19 March 1963) is a Scottish actor who has starred in several acclaimed films, including '' Trainspotting'' and ''28 Days Later''. Besides numerous film and TV appearances McQuarrie has performed extensively in theatre th ...
*Carl – James Cunningham *Rod – Danny Cerqueira *Grace – Suzan Sylvester *Robin – Daniel Evans *Woman –
Victoria Harwood Victoria Claire Harwood is a British-born voice actress based in the United States. She works for anime roles at Geneon Entertainment/New Generation Pictures. Biography Harwood was born in Devon, England in 1961 to an English father and Armenia ...
For the last three performances Grace was played by Sarah Kane as Suzan Sylvester suffered an injury. German-language Premiere (Hamburg, 1998) 12 December 1998 at the Hamburg Kammerspiele.
Translated into German by Elisabeth Plessen, Nils Tabert and
Peter Zadek Peter Zadek (; 19 May 1926 – 30 July 2009) was a German director of theatre, opera and film, a translator and a screenwriter. He is regarded as one of the greatest directors in German-speaking theater. Biography Peter Zadek was born on 19 May ...
. Performed under the title of ''Gesäubert''.
Directed by Peter Zadek. *Graham –
Uwe Bohm Uwe Bohm (born Uwe Enkelmann; 23 January 1962 – 8 April 2022) was a German actor. He appeared in more than 100 films and television shows from 1973 to 2020. Biography Director Hark Bohm engaged the 11-year-old Uwe Enkelmann for the film '' ...
*Tinker –
Ulrich Mühe Friedrich Hans Ulrich Mühe (; 20 June 1953 – 22 July 2007) was a German film, television and theatre actor. He played the role of Hauptmann (Captain) Gerd Wiesler in the Oscar-winning film '' Das Leben der Anderen'' (''The Lives of Others'', 2 ...
*Carl –
Philipp Hochmair Philipp Hochmair (German: fɪǀɪp ˈhoːxmɑɪɐ; born 16 October 1973) is an Austrian theater, film and television actor. Early life Hochmair grew up in Vienna (Austria) where he discovered his passion for literature, film and theater. ...
*Rod – Knut Koch *Grace –
Susanne Lothar Susanne Lothar (15 November 1960 – 21 July 2012) was a German film, television and stage actress. Early life and education Susanne Lothar was born on 15 November 1960 in Hamburg, Germany. She was the daughter of actors Hanns Lothar and Ingrid ...
*Robin – August Diehl *Woman – Gabi Herz 2001 Polish production (
Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...
, 2001) 15 December 2001 at Teatr Współczesny.
Translated into Polish by
Krzysztof Warlikowski Krzysztof Warlikowski (Polish pronunciation: ; born 26 May 1962) is a Polish theatre director. He is the creator and artistic director of Nowy Teatr (New Theatre) in Warsaw. Biography He studied history, philosophy and Romance languages at t ...
and Jacek Poniedziałek. Performed under the title of ''Oczyszczeni''.
Directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski. *Graham – Redbad Klynstra *Tinker – Mariusz Bonaszewski *Carl – Thomas Schweiberer *Rod – Jacek Poniedziałek *Grace – Małgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik *Robin – Tomasz Tyndyk *Woman –
Stanisława Celińska Stanisława Celińska (born 29 April 1947 in Warsaw, Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has ...
First major British Revival (London, 2005) 2 November 2005 at the Arcola Theatre.
Performed by the Oxford Stage Company.
Directed by Sean Holmes. *Graham – Garry Collins *Tinker – Paul Brennan *Carl – Toby Dantzic *Rod – Sean Gallagher *Grace –
Polly Frame Polly Frame is a Scottish actress who was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and is best known to children as Pinky Pinkerton, the hyperactive sports announcer on Disney Channel's pre-school television series ''Bunnytown''. She moved to Galashiel ...
*Robin –
Craig Gazey Craig Gazey (born 24 February 1982) is a British stage and television actor, best known for his portrayal of Graeme Proctor in the ITV soap '' Coronation Street''. Early life Gazey attended Our Lady's Roman Catholic High School in Royton, Ol ...
*Woman – Lisa Daveney National Theatre revival (London, 2016) 23 February 2016 at the Dorfman, National Theatre.
Directed by
Katie Mitchell Katrina Jane Mitchell (born 23 September 1964) is an English theatre director. Life and career Mitchell was born in Reading, Berkshire, raised in Hermitage, Berkshire, and educated at Oakham School. Upon leaving Oakham, she went up to Mag ...
. *Graham – Graham Butler *Tinker – Tom Mothersdale *Carl – Peter Hobday *Rod – George Taylor *Grace – Michelle Terry *Robin – Matthew Tennyson *Woman – Natalie Klamar Australian Production (Sydney, 2022) From 10 June 2022, Red Line Productions presented the first major Australian production at the Old Fitzroy Theatre.
Directed by Dino Dimitriadis. *Graham – Tommy Misa *Tinker – Danny Ball *Carl – Stephen Madsen *Rod – Charles Purcell *Grace – Mây Tran *Robin – Jack Richardson *Woman – Fetu Taku


Interpretations and analysis


Dream interpretation

The academic and playwright Dan Rebellato has noted that much of the play's action could be interpreted as a dream or hallucination: "After all, are these events even real? There's certainly a way of seeing ''Cleansed'' as enfolding entirely in the dying mind of Graham as he takes the lethal dose of crack at the end of scene 1. The play's images have a dream-like quality at times But at the same time, the play insists that these are real events and asks us to bridge the gap between nightmare and reality." Reviewing the first production of Cleansed, the critic John Peter wrote about the nightmarish quality of the play:
"Cleansed (Royal Court/Duke of York's) is a nightmare of a play: like a nightmare, it unreels somewhere between the back of your eyes and the centre of your brain with an unpredictable but remorseless logic. As with a nightmare, you cannot shut it out because nightmares are experienced with your whole body. As with a nightmare, you feel that someone else is dreaming it for you, spinning the images out of some need you don't want to think of as your own. Cleansed is indeed incomprehensible and vile, in the way nightmares are, with all the poem-like tyrannical cohesion of nightmares."
Katie Mitchell's 2016 National Theatre production of the play had the character of Grace present in every scene. Mitchell said this decision was made "to cohere the twenty scenes" and also as the play then could be interpreted as dream:
"We decided that it was the dream of one character which is Grace, who's a character who's lost her brother. He died of a heroin overdose and she has this amazing dream. And so we just put her there at the centre f the play And then when we worked on it we thought it was more useful to work on it as a genre surrealism than naturalism. Because then we could have a lot of illogical things happening A lot of illogical things happen in the play, let alone all the bits of illogic that we added. But doing it as surrealism meant that the actors could be happily inside a dream-landscape committing to what they were doing as opposed to going 'but this doesn't add up. Why is my character doing this and not that?' and asking all of those questions that you normally ask when you're in a realistic genre."Online video of the National Theatre's "live platform event" about ''Cleansed'', with director Katie Mitchell and theatre critic Matt Trueman
/ref>


Further reading

*Kane, Sarah, ''Sarah Kane: Complete Plays''. London: Methuen (2001), * * *


References


External links


Audio recording of the post-show discussion of the 2005 production of Cleansed at the Arcola theatre. Hosted by Aleks Sierz with discussion from directors Dominic Dromgoole and Sean Holmes, academic Graham Saunders and Sarah Kane's brother Simon Kane.Online video of the National Theatre's "live platform event" about ''Cleansed'', with director Katie Mitchell and theatre critic Matt Trueman
{{Sarah_Kane 1998 plays Plays by Sarah Kane Transgender-related theatre