Sarah Kane – whose five plays and one screenplay make up a small but powerful body of work – was one of the most talented and controversial young British writers to emerge in the 1990s. Born in 1971, she grew up in Kelvedon Hatch, near Brentwood, Essex, and in 1989 went to study Drama at Bristol University. In 1991, she wrote and performed the short

Comic Monologue

at the Edinburgh Fringe, and the following year performed two more,

Starved

and

What She Said

. After graduating with a First Class Honours Degree in 1992, she took an MA course in Playwriting, led by playwright David Edgar, at Birmingham University. Here she wrote the first draft of her debut play,

Blasted

. Kane then moved to London and became literary associate at the Bush fringe theatre in early 1994, leaving about six…

1856 words

Citation: Sierz, Aleks. "Sarah Kane". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 February 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5605, accessed 24 November 2024.]

5605 Sarah Kane 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.