Cleansed, National Theatre: ‘If the audience faints, our play is doing its job,' says fight director of controversial play

Extreme: A man has his tongue pulled out in one of the most graphic scenes
Tristram Kenton
Rashid Razaq24 February 2016

At least five people have fainted and 40 have left in shock — but one of the team behind new National Theatre show Cleansed today said it proves she has done her job well.

The play is set on a university campus which turns into an interrogation centre, with characters subjected to violent tests to prove their love.

The audience is warned of “graphic” content including heroin injected into an eyeball, a tongue being ripped out, hands being cut off, surgery, electric shocks, murder and suicide.

One theatre-goer said their friend fainted and almost fell over a balcony. The National said five people had required medical help after watching the revival of Sarah Kane’s 1998 play, which is directed by Katie Mitchell.

The production could be the National’s bloodiest show
Tristram Kenton

Today, fight director Rachel Bown-Williams said: “One of the things that Katie wanted the play to do was to get in the faces of the audience and make them feel uncomfortable.

“I wouldn’t say it was our objective to make people faint, but I suppose it does show we were effective.”

Ms Bown-Williams runs RC-Annie, one of the UK’s leading dramatic violence companies, with Ruth Cooper-Brown. The pair have worked on The James Plays at the National and Mojo in the West End.

Cleansed was Kane’s third play, written shortly before her suicide. The production could be the National’s bloodiest show and exceed the 100 walk-outs or faintings during Titus Andronicus in 2014.

Cleansed has played to full houses of 318 people during six previews and had its press night yesterday. The Standard’s theatre critic gave it four stars.

Today, the National said there were no plans for extra warnings or to have paramedics on stand-by. In a recent interview, Mitchell told Radio 4 the cast and crew had to “laugh a lot” in rehearsals to lessen the sense of darkness. She said: “It has been difficult at different moments for the performers in different ways.”

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