Rebecca Frecknall's production of Sarah Kane's notoriously difficult 1998 play Cleansed at the Almeida theatre succeeds in balancing appalling cruelty with human yearning for love and beauty, resonating more intensely than ever in today's violent world.
A Chilling Ordinariness
Set in a university that evokes a concentration camp, the play features Tinker (Leo Bill) as the sole visible torturer, embodying Hannah Arendt's banality of evil. He targets sexually aberrant characters, including gay men Rod (Parth Thakerar) and Carl (Luke Cinque-White), brother and sister Graham (Jack Riddiford) and Grace (Pearl Chanda), a peep show dancer (Lizzy Connolly), and prisoner Robin (Stuart Thompson). The cast performs difficult scenarios without melodrama.
Violence and Its Resonance
Kane's play includes rapes, mutilations, and beatings, with a character reflecting, 'Death isn't the worst thing they can do to you.' Frecknall's production reminds audiences of wars past and present, from Titus Andronicus to Guantánamo's 'torture lite' and photos from Abu Ghraib prison. Israel's brutality in Gaza also echoes. Madeleine Girling's stage design has a grimy, institutionalised feel, evoking a psychiatric ward or prison.
Poetry Amidst Horror
Despite the cruelty, the play finds poetry in sudden beauty, declarations of love, and humour. Characters in extreme pain move in expressive dance, choreographed by intimacy director Ingrid Mackinnon to bring passion without voyeurism. George Dennis's sound design and Angus MacRae's compositions blend blazing romance with thrumming dread.
A Protracted but Powerful Experience
For a slim play, Cleansed feels protracted and slows in pace. The cruelty becomes draining, but it re-sensitises audiences in a world of streamed violence. The play's message is strangely romantic: the human need for love and beauty persists as a vital force against violence, even for someone like Tinker.
Cleansed runs at the Almeida theatre, London, until 29 August.
