Scan barcode
lolapasteque's review against another edition
2.0
Bizarre (euphémisme de avant-gardiste), très très brut. Je sais pas si j'ai compris et s'il y a quelque chose à comprendre. Rentrer dans la psyché de Sarah Kane est toujours percutant.
Est-ce que j'ai aimé ou pas ? Difficile de le dire, mais je n'étais pas dans la vibe.
Est-ce que j'ai aimé ou pas ? Difficile de le dire, mais je n'étais pas dans la vibe.
vaucresson's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
stefo's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A difficult read not because of the shocking imagery but because of the sheer density of its contents (which are even hard to map out here in this tiny review). Dysphoria; suicide; sexual anxieties, this play has it all and yet it doesn't feel too edgy having in mind Kane's life: depression; multiple suicide attempts; hospitalization and then on top of all that needlessly harsh critical reception to her works.
Its also quite difficult giving this play a numerical rating. Everything coming out of this work feels entirely genuine and I find that amusing. Give this a read, you won't regret it.
Its also quite difficult giving this play a numerical rating. Everything coming out of this work feels entirely genuine and I find that amusing. Give this a read, you won't regret it.
lelainav's review against another edition
5.0
Beautiful, brutal, painful, and sparkling. A must read for anyone prepared to handle enormous amounts of graphic, even disgusting content.
dejw's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Sexual violence, and Gore
Moderate: Drug abuse and Homophobia
yvkhan's review against another edition
5.0
Roland Barthes once said that "being in love was like being in Auschwitz". According to The Guardian, this was the line that inspired Sarah Kane to write Cleansed. Kane appears to have taken this line very, very seriously, peppering her play with the most horrific of images, attempting to stun the audience with how horrific love can be and how beautiful it is at the same time.
Graham and Grace are deeply in love, and their love is all-consuming. In fact, their love is so endless and devouring that Grace loses herself in the abyss of her passion, spending the entire play seeking to look like her brother, wearing his clothes and changing her manner of speaking to suit his. The two are so in love that they have become one, eternally intertwined, both in life and death.
Their love is destructive and horrific, as reflected in its incestuousness. Although their love is intense and heartrending, as can be observed from the towering sunflower that sprouts from the ground during one of their numerous acts of love, the monstrous nature of the flower with its unnatural height and rate of growth add a certain phantasmagoric, nightmarish element to their mutual adulation. The way Grace carries the spectre of her dead brother with her throughout the play is horrifying in its devotion. Perhaps the horrific nature of this love is best revealed when Grace is assaulted and subsequently raped by a faceless mob. The scene is ostensibly framed as one of empowerment, where Grace's love for Graham allows her to endure the abuse of the relentless crowd. However, this is not the case - the violence enacted on Grace is clearly illustrated with the sounds of the crowd beating her up resounding throughout the scene. With Grace and Graham, Kane depicts the terrifying strength of obsessive, reciprocated love.
In contrast, the romacne between Carl and Rod feels more tentative. Carl pretends to love his partner more than himself, bursting into hyperbolic expressions of love constantly. However, these expressions feel more cliched than authentic. Carl needs to be told to remember Rod's name, to be in love with the man before him and not simply in love with love itself. Additionally, Carl defaults to conventional ideas and traditions through the use of a ring as a symbol of dedication. Carl's love is simply an imitation of what he's observed and has come to expect from romance, not an authentic expression of love. This is exposed by the Tinker, who threatens to sodomise Carl with a pole, causing Carl to lash out and scream for the Tinker to assault Rod and not him. This leads to Rod's death. The Tinker cuts off Carl's tongue and makes him swallow his own ring, a rather unsubtle suggestion that Carl's earlier declarations of love were false and inauthentic. In a way, Rod and Carl's status as a homosexual couple adds to this portrayal due to the persecution homosexuals face in our society, with Carl's betrayal of Rod possibly reflecting the way homosexual couples in reality might forsake one another out of fear for their own lives.
Throughout the play, Carl is punished repeatedly with dismemberment, losing his hands and legs and eventually his genitals. The loss of Carl's hands and legs might reflect the paralysing nature of his guilt. while the loss of his genitals is perhaps the ultimate symbol of emasculation, a physical representation of his lack of courage. These genitals are then given to Grace, who dared to love, but in so doing, became a freakish being with an uncertain and unstable identity. Such a "happy ending" where the loyal and faithful are rewarded whilst the insincere and traitorous are punished might seem ideal initially, which reflects the way the sun rises in the final scene. However, the final image we are left with is one of blinding light, of love so passionate it blisters and scars.
The figure of Robin wears Grace's clothing, a representation of his one-sided affection. Grace smells like a flower, with this fragrance representing the hint, the elusive possibility of love that Robin is pursuing. This most crushing of crushes (lmao) haunts him in the same way that Grace's haunts her - with one key difference. Robin's love is unreciprocated. His attempts to win her favour are unsuccessful. His attempt to forget about her by paying to see an exotic dancer eventually ends in distress as he is unable to forget his love. Eventually, Robin gives up on real love and attempts to pursue Grace by imitating the now dead Graham and buying chocolates for her. However, the Tinker forces him to stuff himself by eating the entire box of chocolates, leaving him in tears. In a way, this reflects the intoxicatingly sweet nature of one-sided love and its suffocating nature, the paradoxical idea that so many pieces of heaven could make life itself seem like hell. The image of Robin counting the days before Grace and Carl are released from the hospital is particularly haunting. Robin demonstrates his ability to use the abacus to impress Grace, his chief tutor, but as he painstakingly does his various calculations, the audience has no choice but to watch painfully as Grace pays him no attention whatsoever. Eventually, Rod hangs himself with Grace's stockings, in a way, dying by her hand, the ultimate expression of his despair.
However, though horrific, these images are beautiful. The giant sunflower emerging from the stage, a blanket of daffodils rising from the ground, the almost poetic way in which Carl is punished and Robin's love punishes him - all of these things add a certain beauty to the horror and pain of the play. Although love can be painful and scary and frightening, it's also pulchritudinous, and should hence be appreciated.
If there is a character that represents love as it should be, it's Rod. Rod is faithful to Carl, but not deceptively so. He has a realistic view of their love and means more than he promises. He is unwilling to like to Carl, no matter the situation. Love, then, should be an authentic expression of the self coupled with a certain self-respect and self-awareness.
(I might elaborate on The Tinker and the exotic woman later if I figure out what they're about. But for now, I've been putting off this review for far too long, and it's already a thousand words, so I don't feel like continuing... sorry, Ms Kane!)
Graham and Grace are deeply in love, and their love is all-consuming. In fact, their love is so endless and devouring that Grace loses herself in the abyss of her passion, spending the entire play seeking to look like her brother, wearing his clothes and changing her manner of speaking to suit his. The two are so in love that they have become one, eternally intertwined, both in life and death.
Their love is destructive and horrific, as reflected in its incestuousness. Although their love is intense and heartrending, as can be observed from the towering sunflower that sprouts from the ground during one of their numerous acts of love, the monstrous nature of the flower with its unnatural height and rate of growth add a certain phantasmagoric, nightmarish element to their mutual adulation. The way Grace carries the spectre of her dead brother with her throughout the play is horrifying in its devotion. Perhaps the horrific nature of this love is best revealed when Grace is assaulted and subsequently raped by a faceless mob. The scene is ostensibly framed as one of empowerment, where Grace's love for Graham allows her to endure the abuse of the relentless crowd. However, this is not the case - the violence enacted on Grace is clearly illustrated with the sounds of the crowd beating her up resounding throughout the scene. With Grace and Graham, Kane depicts the terrifying strength of obsessive, reciprocated love.
In contrast, the romacne between Carl and Rod feels more tentative. Carl pretends to love his partner more than himself, bursting into hyperbolic expressions of love constantly. However, these expressions feel more cliched than authentic. Carl needs to be told to remember Rod's name, to be in love with the man before him and not simply in love with love itself. Additionally, Carl defaults to conventional ideas and traditions through the use of a ring as a symbol of dedication. Carl's love is simply an imitation of what he's observed and has come to expect from romance, not an authentic expression of love. This is exposed by the Tinker, who threatens to sodomise Carl with a pole, causing Carl to lash out and scream for the Tinker to assault Rod and not him. This leads to Rod's death. The Tinker cuts off Carl's tongue and makes him swallow his own ring, a rather unsubtle suggestion that Carl's earlier declarations of love were false and inauthentic. In a way, Rod and Carl's status as a homosexual couple adds to this portrayal due to the persecution homosexuals face in our society, with Carl's betrayal of Rod possibly reflecting the way homosexual couples in reality might forsake one another out of fear for their own lives.
Throughout the play, Carl is punished repeatedly with dismemberment, losing his hands and legs and eventually his genitals. The loss of Carl's hands and legs might reflect the paralysing nature of his guilt. while the loss of his genitals is perhaps the ultimate symbol of emasculation, a physical representation of his lack of courage. These genitals are then given to Grace, who dared to love, but in so doing, became a freakish being with an uncertain and unstable identity. Such a "happy ending" where the loyal and faithful are rewarded whilst the insincere and traitorous are punished might seem ideal initially, which reflects the way the sun rises in the final scene. However, the final image we are left with is one of blinding light, of love so passionate it blisters and scars.
The figure of Robin wears Grace's clothing, a representation of his one-sided affection. Grace smells like a flower, with this fragrance representing the hint, the elusive possibility of love that Robin is pursuing. This most crushing of crushes (lmao) haunts him in the same way that Grace's haunts her - with one key difference. Robin's love is unreciprocated. His attempts to win her favour are unsuccessful. His attempt to forget about her by paying to see an exotic dancer eventually ends in distress as he is unable to forget his love. Eventually, Robin gives up on real love and attempts to pursue Grace by imitating the now dead Graham and buying chocolates for her. However, the Tinker forces him to stuff himself by eating the entire box of chocolates, leaving him in tears. In a way, this reflects the intoxicatingly sweet nature of one-sided love and its suffocating nature, the paradoxical idea that so many pieces of heaven could make life itself seem like hell. The image of Robin counting the days before Grace and Carl are released from the hospital is particularly haunting. Robin demonstrates his ability to use the abacus to impress Grace, his chief tutor, but as he painstakingly does his various calculations, the audience has no choice but to watch painfully as Grace pays him no attention whatsoever. Eventually, Rod hangs himself with Grace's stockings, in a way, dying by her hand, the ultimate expression of his despair.
However, though horrific, these images are beautiful. The giant sunflower emerging from the stage, a blanket of daffodils rising from the ground, the almost poetic way in which Carl is punished and Robin's love punishes him - all of these things add a certain beauty to the horror and pain of the play. Although love can be painful and scary and frightening, it's also pulchritudinous, and should hence be appreciated.
If there is a character that represents love as it should be, it's Rod. Rod is faithful to Carl, but not deceptively so. He has a realistic view of their love and means more than he promises. He is unwilling to like to Carl, no matter the situation. Love, then, should be an authentic expression of the self coupled with a certain self-respect and self-awareness.
(I might elaborate on The Tinker and the exotic woman later if I figure out what they're about. But for now, I've been putting off this review for far too long, and it's already a thousand words, so I don't feel like continuing... sorry, Ms Kane!)