By Carol Davis
SAN DIEGO—I have been on four roller coaster rides in my lifetime. Once as a teenager on the one at White City Park in my hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts, another on the Matterhorn at Disneyland when I didn’t know any better, another at Magic Mountain since my youngest was too short to make the cut and my husband was already drained of all color from his face, and this last one at was at ion theatre company sitting through its latest shocker, Sarah Kane’s nightmarish, raw, brutal and gut wrenching Blasted.
The emotional roller coaster goes from the peaks of “I love you” to the valleys of “I hate you” (and then some) inside an upscale hotel room in Leeds, England. This is the rendezvous destination for former lovers Ian (Ron Choularton) and Cate (Gemma Grey). The ride continues as it takes us from the calm and quiet outside on the streets below to the destruction (both personal and physical) inside where, without warning, a bomb blast tears a gaping hole into the side of Ian and Cate’s hotel.
In between those peaks and valleys, both inside and out, some of the most outrageous and yes, graphic theatre this reviewer has seen takes place. From the misogynistic, loud and foul mouthed journalist and our protagonist, Ian who strips off his clothes when Cate tells him she doesn’t like them to the rape scene when she passes out and is unconscious, to her simple minded dependency on her mother, to his compulsive drinking, smoking, gun toting rampages, one gets the idea that that a jump from the top of this roller coaster ride might be more in order to put an end to this self inflicted torture than sitting through 100 minutes of brutality in living color. But it wasn’t an option.
This is part of ion’s ‘Off the radar’ series and it is being mounted for a short time for those interested in ‘other world theatre’. In other words it’s fringe theatre and ion does it well. Blasted is making its San Diego premiere and who knows what other cities it may show up in. This is a show not meant for everyone’s prime time pick, but the brutality of war is an eye opener, and the residual results that surround this man-made ugliness should be addressed, and Kane does just this.
In this particular instance, the war in Croatia and Bosnia (as in the Congo) is a war against women where rape and mutilation was and is a daily occurrence. Kane sees her story through the lenses of this war. But the war that tears both Ian and Cate in two happens inside the hotel room as violence and brutality force them both in to this warped dependency that sickens as we watch.
Cate, in all her naivete finally leaves the hotel room for food and comes back almost unable to walk from being raped over and over again. Looking shell shocked, she has a sausage in one hand and bottle of something to drink for the two of them in the other. While she is gone Ian, blinded by the intrusion of a rebel soldier, (Steve Lone) who gouges out his eyes after raping him, is left to fend for himself. What goes on from the time Cate leaves the room to the time she gets back is something you have to see for yourself.
What can and should be noted in all this mayhem is the quality of acting by both Choularton and Ms. Grey and of course for director Claudio Raygoza who steered them through the blood bath and havoc. Choularton is a natural for this role. He goes through some pretty awful gyrations as the hard drinking reporter who, from the outset, looks as if he just wanted a romantic getaway with his girlfriend. Unfortunately, and this is where he excels, he can turn on a dime and, damn it, convince you that he is as mean as he seems. He’s one of the best chameleons in today’s theatre. Unfortunately, what he gets is not what he bargained for though.
Cate, the simple-minded woman/child who shows uneasiness from the start is uncomfortable as soon as she comes into the room but manages to hold her own against her abusive partner. Even her going out on the streets knowing what will happen to her when she does, shows more courage than all the bullying and roughness that Ian forces on her. Her performance is agonizing and painful to watch, but very real.
Between the hotel room décor, designed by Raygoza, the awesome lighting by Karin Filijan (she won the San Diego Critics Award this year for best lighting) that pinpoints Ian’s disconcerting changes devolving into an animal-like person during Cate’s absence and Melanie Chen’s sound design signaling what’s going on inside to the bomb blast and gun shots outside, Blasted is a piece to be reckoned with, but not for everyone.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: through Feb. 18th
Organization: ion theatre company
Phone: 619-600-5020
Production Type: Drama
Where: 6th @ Penn, 37014 Sixth Ave, San Diego, 92103
Ticket Prices: $10.00-$29.00
Web: iontheatre.com
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Davis is a San Diego-based theatre critic, who may be contacted at carol.davis@sdjewishworld.com
Venue: BLKBOX