Blasted, Sarah Kane's 1995 debut play which drew cries of "filth" and "disgusting" from London's critical establishment, has finally opened in New York. Ben Brantley delivers an articulate and energetic (and positive) assessment here. I like it when Brantley reviews downtown work (Elevator Repair Service, the Wooster Group, his perennial trips to Richard Foreman-land). I completely disagree with his reductive Tony-time thought piece on August: Osage County and find him too impressed by celebrities on Broadway, but when he reviews experimental work, he seems to actually enjoy his job and his writing goes up a conceptual and linguistic notch. (Don't forget: He did help to put Richard Maxwell on the mainstream map, a couple of years after we all knew Rich was doing something new.) My review of Blasted is up here. By the way, Sarah's brother Simon snapped the picture above, showing Marin Ireland and Reed Birney, both of whom are phenomenal.
I haven't been blogging much because life and work have been keeping me busy. For those interested, my one-act opera, Fade, created with composer Stefan Weisman, will get its world premiere in London October 22. The producer is Second Movement. So far, discussions with the director, Oliver Mears, have been very encouraging. In November I will get back to my play, for which I have reams of notes for rewrites.
The dance between crrritic and creator is very interesting indeed.