Playwright Sarah Kane was born in Essex, England. Her early life was marked by the evangelical influence of her parents, which she later rejected. In 1992, she graduated from Bristol University--where she studied drama--and then continued to the University of Birmingham, where she studied playwriting with David Edgar.
In her short career, Kane established herself as a vibrant and visceral force of 1990s British In-yer-face theatre. Her plays largely centered around issues of sex, sexuality, violence, identity, and health. Her first play, Blasted, premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 1995. Following the initial negative reviews of the play, largely due to its spectacle of sex and violence, Kane wrote Phaedra's Love (1996), Cleansed (1998), Crave (1998), and 4.48 Psychosis (1999). Even though many critics initially dismissed Kane's work as gratuitously violent, since then she has been recognized for the raw emotion and spectacular images infused into her scripts.
In 1999, Kane was hospitalized following a suicide attempt. While in the hospital, she succumbed to suicide. Her final play 4.48 Psychosis was completed just before her death, and premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 2000.
Kane's plays are widely available for purchase, but performance licensing is restricted. Inquires should be directed to her licensing agent, Casarotto, Ramsay, & Associates:
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