Sarah Kane

Playwriting - Winner 1998

Sarah Kane (1971-1999) is one of the most discussed and influential playwrights of recent decades. Her five plays – Blasted (1995), Phaedra’s Love (1996), Cleansed (1998), Crave (1998) and 4.48 Psychosis (2000) – have become part of the theatrical canon and are studied and performed around the world.

Though initially her work was fiercely attacked by the critics for its depictions of violence and extremes of human behaviour and emotion, Harold Pinter and Edward Bond were early admirers and she is now widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's most important formal innovators and theatrical poets.