Violent New Play At National Theatre Sees Audience Members Collapse

A new play being staged at the National Theatre has seen audience members faint or simply walk out over scenes of graphic violence, rape and torture.

‘Cleansed’, written by Sarah Kane, has seen theatre-goers having to be escorted from the auditorium, while 40 have walked out during its preview week, according to reports.

One male character has his tongue removed early on in the play, while in other scenes the central female character Grace is raped, before later on having male genitals transplanted onto her.

There are also scenes of another man having his fingers and toes fed into an electric saw, and another where a man dressed in heels is force-fed before hanging himself.

The play is set in a university which has been converted into a shadowy detention and interrogation centre, under the rule of a violent and sadistic 'doctor’ called Tinker, with the bereaved Grace arriving in search of her dead brother.

The Daily Mail reports that five people have required medical attention during performances between February 16 and February 22.

Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph reports that cast-members have suffered nightmares.

Director Katie Mitchell told Radio 4: “We have to laugh a lot in order to balance the despair and the darkness of the material.

“It has been difficult at different moments for the performers in different ways. We all dream huge nightmares now. Everyone has very strange nightmares where very extreme events take place.”

It opened to critics last night, following a week of previews, and is just the third revival of the show since it debuted at the Royal Court in 1998.

So far, the reviews have been mixed, the Mail’s Quentin Letts giving the play a single star review, calling it 'a corker of dull awfulness’.

Kirsty Lang of the Radio 4’s Front Row said that she heard one audience member calling the show 'a lot of b***ocks’ as they left the theatre.

Not all have hated it, however.

The Stage offered it four stars out of five, calling it 'simultaneously repellent and compelling’.

It runs until May 5.

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Image credits: Rex Features