History Creator / SarahKane

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!!Sarah's works contain examples of the following:
* AmbiguouslyBi: Some of Sarah's characters have been suggested to be bisexual; Kane herself was a lesbian.
* AngryWhiteMan: Ian in Blasted is this, he uses language that offends Cate and doesn't work for his plans. In Skin, Billy is a [[spoiler:skinhead]] who is part of a gang that later attack a [[spoiler:Church where an interracial wedding is taking place]].
* AssholeVictim: Ian in ''Blasted'' is a rapist, racist and ableist. He is raped, tortured and blinded by the Soldier and then mentally tortured by Cate while suicidal.
* BlackHumour: ''Phaedra's Love'' contains a lot of brutal deaths, but also some very witty humour; Kane herself described it as 'My comedy'.
* BreakTheCutie: Whenever you call Cate a cutie or not she goes though this after [[spoiler:Ian forces himself on her]], then [[spoiler:escapes the hotel only to return to the ruins with a sick baby that dies in her arms]] but by the end she isn't afraid to [[spoiler:have sex]] for food.
* CassandraTruth: Despite [[spoiler:Hippolytus]] and [[spoiler:Strophe]] knowing that [[spoiler:Phaedra]] lied they are still treated badly for this, suffering a fate worse than Cassandra did.
* ColdBloodedTorture: In ''Skin'', [[spoiler:Billy]] is tortured by [[spoiler:Marcia, a black woman]], she hits him, [[spoiler:scrubs his tats off with bleach, feeds him dog food and carves her name on his back;]] the torture was so bad that Channel Four aired it before midnight.
** ''Cleansed'' has [[spoiler:Tinker]] mentally and physically torturing the [[spoiler:patients]].
* CreatorCameo: Sarah wasn't just a writer, she also occasionally acted (one of her performances was alongside her then-classmate, Creator/SimonPegg). She once played the roles of Grace in ''Cleansed'' and M in ''Crave'' after the actresses left the shows.
* DownerEnding: All of her works have this trope, excepting ''Cleansed'' (debatably).
* DownfallBySex: ''Blasted, Phaedra's Love'' and ''Cleansed'' all have sex scenes, then something bad happens to the characters, apart from [[spoiler:Cate with the soldiers]] or [[spoiler:Tinker and the Woman]].
* EyeScream: ''Blasted'' has this- [[spoiler:Ian's]] eyes are eaten by [[spoiler:a Solider with PTSD]] who recreates the scene of his [[spoiler:girlfriend's rape and death]]. To make matters worse, Sarah based it on a real story.
* GoodbyeCruelWorld: ''4.48 Psychosis'', all 75 minutes of it.
* HumansAreBastards: The darkest side of human nature is presented in all of her plays.
* TheInsomniac: The title ''4.48 Psychosis'' was taken from the fact Sarah always awoke at that time in her depressed state.
* {{Minimalism}}: Most of the plays are set in one room, if there is a setting. Her last plays leave a lot to interpretation; the most challenging play is ''Cleansed'', where flowers grow from the set and rats carry away limbs.
* MinimalistCast: There is less than 10 cast members in most of the plays, and in ''4.48 Psychosis'' there isn't even a cast list.
* NiceGuy: Despite her dark subject matter, Sarah as a person was as a good friend to those that knew her.
* TheNothingAfterDeath: Sarah was raised a Christian but rejected religion after her childhood; ''Blasted'' has [[spoiler:Ian]] continually says to [[spoiler:Cate]] that there's nothing after death. However after dying himself, a drop of rain brings him back to life.
* NoNameGiven: There is the nameless Soldier in ''Blasted'', then there is a nameless woman in ''Cleansed'', in ''Crave'' the characters are reduced to single letters, and in ''4.48 Psychosis'', there's no characters at all.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: [[spoiler:Ian]] is racist, insults the disabled and is generally a massive arsehole. Then he rapes [[spoiler:Cate]] who is his total opposite, but boy does he get his comeuppance, and he ends the play as a totally helpless man, at her mercy. Then there the skinhead Billy who is the main character in ''Skin'', his worst act is spitting a half-chewed banana at [[spoiler:a Black man]] then [[spoiler:beating another with a brick]] all to the beat of a toiling bell.
* RapeAsDrama: ''Blasted'' has two: [[spoiler:Ian does it to Cate]], then [[spoiler:the Soldier does it to Ian]].
** Also ''Phaedra's Love'', and it drives this retelling of the play.
* SexualKarma: Appears in several of her plays, along with ''Skin''.
* SourOutsideSadInside: [[spoiler:Ian]] in ''Blasted'' might be a scumbag, but he regrets his behaviour, saying that he has a son but he has disowned him, and the sad side comes for good [[spoiler:post-blinding]]. Also the characters in ''Crave'' and ''4.48 Psychosis'' seem to use their behaviour as a defence.
* StrawCritic: When ''Blasted'' opened the Critics were highly negative- Jack Tinker's review was very harsh, refusing to believe that there was anything redeemable in it's violent content [[note]]Tinker also gave a negative review to Les Misrables, so he could be wrong.[[/note]] However, Michael Billington, who also wrote such a review, received a letter from Sarah castigating him for misassertions, and wrote back to her to say sorry, although she was unimpressed by his apology.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Masturbation appears in ''Blasted, Phaedra's Love, Cleansed'' and ''Skin'', only ''Crave'' and ''4.48 Psychosis'' lack it.

* StrawCritic: When ''Blasted'' opened the Critics were highly negative- Jack Tinker's review was very harsh, refusing to believe that there was anything redeemable in it's violent content [[note]]Tinker also gave a negative review to Les Misrables, so he could be wrong.[[/note]] However, Michael Billington, who also wrote such a review, revisited the play and even wrote a letter to Sarah before her death to say sorry.

* MohsScaleOfViolenceHardness: ''Phaedra's Love'' at Level 9[[note]]Onstage rapes, tearing apart and disembowelment of a live victim.[[/note]], ''Blasted''[[note]]Onstage rapes, gouging and eating of eyes, cannibalism of a dead baby.[[/note]] and ''Cleansed''[[note]]Onstage rape with a pole and severing of hands, tongue, and feet; offstage severing of genitals.[[/note]] at Level 10.

* StrawCritic: When ''Blasted'' opened the Critics were highly negative- Jack Tinker's review was very harsh, refusing to believe that there was anything redeemable in it's violent content [[note]]Tinker also gave a negative review to Les Misrables, so he could be wrong.[[/note]] However, Michael Billington, who also wrote such a review, revisited the play and even wrote a letter to Sarah before her death to say sorry.

* ''[[Theatre/{{FourFortyEightPsychosis}} 4.48 Psychosis'' (1999)

* ''[[Theatre/{{FourFortyEight Psychosis}} 4.48 Psychosis'' (1999)

* ''Theatre/{{4.48Psychosis}}'' (1999)

* ''Theatre{{Crave}}'' (1998)
* ''Theatre/4.48Psychosis'' (1999)

* ''Film/{{Skin}}'' (film, 1995)

* ''Skin'' (film, 1995)

* ''Cleansed'' (1998)
* ''Crave'' (1998)
* ''4.48 Psychosis'' (1999)

* StrawCritic: When ''Blasted'' opened the Critics were highly negative- Jack Tinker's review was very harsh, refusing to believe that there was anything redeemable in it's violent content [[note]]Tinker also gave a negative review to Theatre/LesMisérables, so he could be wrong.[[/note]] However, Michael Billington, who also wrote such a review, revisited the play and even wrote a letter to Sarah before her death to say sorry.

* ''Phaedra's Love'' (1996)

* CreatorBreakdown: Sarah's mental health was the subject of ''4.48 Psychosis''. One critic even referred to it as a '75-minute suicide note'.

* CreatorsOddball: Sarah's last two plays, ''Crave'' and ''4.48 Psychosis'', lack the violence of her previous plays. She even created a pen name when ''Crave'' premiered so that nobody came to it with a expectation. ''4.48 Psychosis'' is pretty weird even for Kane- there's no named characters or stage directions, so anyone wanting to perform it has to improvise.

* MissingEpisode: Before ''Blasted'', Sarah also wrote three one women plays, 'Comic Monologue', 'What She Said' and 'Starved'. Her estate won't allow anyone to perform or quote from them, but they can be read in a university archive.
** Also, she edited all her plays up to her death, so the ''Blasted'' that opened in 1995 might be different to the one in book form.
** Sarah was also against her plays being broadcasted on radio or television, believing that stage was the only place to leave a impression.

* {{Squick}}: There's too much to talk about here. Look at the Mohs Scale above for details.

* StrawCritic: When ''Blasted'' opened the Critics were highly negative- Jack Tinker's review was very harsh, refusing to believe that there was anything redeemable in it's violent content [[note]]Tinker also gave a negative review to Theatre/LesMisérables, so he could be wrong.[[/note]] However, Michael Billington, who also wrote such a review, revisited the play and even wrote a letter to Sarah before her death to say sorry.
* VindicatedByHistory: When ''Blasted'' opened, the critics focused exclusively on how disgusted they were, with no focus on the message that Kane was trying to present. When it received its revival post Sarah's death, one of the original critics saw it again and his review was an apology to Sarah, saying 'I got it wrong, as I keep saying. She was a major talent.'