The Epistemic, Deontic and Boulomaeic landscape of Sarah Kane’s Cleansed

It is a challenging undertaking to analyse the worlds of Sarah Kane’s work, predominantly on account of the extreme environments she offers her audiences; meaning becomes ambiguous yet infinitely complex. Cleansed is most infamous for inflicting the audience with such extreme violence that it’s challening to look beyond its impact. However, Kane argues that her fictional worlds always contain elements from reality, suggesting the work not to be as irrational as we first presume. In my analysis of Cleansed, I adopt Elam Kier’s distillation of worlds (2001); being factual (the audience’s real world) and counterfactual (the text’s fictional world), observing how elements from each can infuse the other. Additionally, for the purposes of this essay, I shall frame my orientation of Cleansed's setting using Kier’s distinctions of the different states of a counterworld:

This triadic approach is the most effective method when deciphering Kane’s work, as separating the different states of world aids our holistic understanding of Kane's gesture. In her acclaimed article, Elinor Fuchs describes a play text as being a world with its separate elements contributing to a playwright’s vision (2004). Through the lens of Fuchs' brilliant metaphor, I argue how the Epistemic world offers the foundations of earth, the Deontic being the world’s violent force gale winds threatening stability, and the Boulomaeic being the vital life source of the planet. Kane moulds her audience as much as she moulds her worlds, a constant shifting of perspective and implication causes Cleansed to be the most horrific, yet beautifully visceral within Kane’s cannon.

The Epistemic World

The Epistemic world is solely the creation of Kane’s, but exists as the apparent reality for its inhabitants who occupy Kane’s theatrical landscape. The text’s dramaturgical structure reveals the rules of the world and only until the play’s conclusion are we offered all evidence for its existence. The world’s only real situation being a university or institution like setting that ‘shapes (or conditions) the young.’ (Trueman, 2018). Cleansed consists of twenty episodic scenes, set in various locations across 'campus', presently adapted to suit Tinker’s requirements in fulfilling his corporeal experiments. How fitting then for Kane to scrutinise love, whilst testing the limits of loyalty within such a conventionally formative setting. Katie Mitchell discusses the process of her 2016 production at the National Theatre, claiming one method for cohering the ‘incoherent' episodic structure of Kane’s Cleansed, is to site it within one location (YouTube). However critics felt the Epistemic world of Mitchell’s adaptation had become ‘vaguer [with] no immediate political bite.’ (Clapp, 2016). Therefore suggesting that Kane’s specific segregation of the characters within their different settings is heavily reliant on the Epistemic world’s socio-political resonance.

The university showers have become Tinker’s respite as he fetishises the ‘Woman’, trapped within a makeshift peepshow booth. The showers, like other sites, adopt a dichotomy of desire; the sexuality of voyeurism meets intimate compassion as Kane later subverts Tinker’s character by becoming an arguably tender lover. Carl and Rod are similarly only situated within one site, but remain on a ‘patch of mud’ as if animals on Tinker's farm. Their exposure to the elements, including rain and ‘scorching heat’ (Kane, 35), emphasises their enduring love and desperation for forgiveness and loyalty. Being found existing on earth's raw surface grounds their love within the play, as their ritualistic exchanging of rings anchors Cleansed’s theme of loyalty and the organically human desire for acceptance. Seperate from them, the White Room acts as an edgeland for Grace and Graham’s relationship, two bodies coming together to make love, as well as to fuse their bodies to make one: ‘the Graham outside like Graham inside.’ (p. 20). Kane’s scrutinisation of love’s morality centres around Grace and Graham, their relationship presents an exploration of the sexual intimacy between lovers who happen to be siblings. Despite the negative connotations surrounding incest, their love, like that of Rod and Carl, offer glimmers of authenticity; a sacred bond between humans defying their separation, thus cohering Kane’s vast Epistemic world. To somehow emphasise this is perhaps a more effective approach when cohering the text’s narrative as sites adopt their own political agency, and so to honour Kane’s original separation retains the university’s layered realism whilst still maintaining the unifying theme of love.

Kane’s complex setting of the campus opposes the external world’s ambiguity, which in turn juxtaposes ‘against the empiricism of the [audience’s] real world.’ (Sauders, p. 94), placing the audience in a liminal state between factual and counterfactual worlds. Kane unapologetically inflicts the audience with controversial ideas of morality, justice and self-subjugation; the liminal space is a psychological world the audience orienteer on their quest for meaning. Kane's lack of moral clarity emphasises the audience's otherness to Kane’s Epistemic world, thus exploiting our vulnerability to the setting’s torturous events. However, to prevent us drifting irretrievably, subtle familiar signifiers offer terra firma within Kane's turbulent world; the sounds of cricket (p. 3) and football (p. 23) are heard as well as a child singing ‘Things We Said Today’ (p. 30), all planting an epistemic backdrop acting as context surrounding Tinker’s institution. Thus, perhaps an attempt to define the liminal space as the familiar tangibility of the counterfactual world seems possible to exist within our own. 

Kane’s Epistemic world also includes the cohabitation between humans and nature suggesting the natural world’s acquisition of autonomy; the absurdity of the sunflower and daffodils’ penetration through the floor characterises the world with a surreality and as a result, distances itself from the factual world. Kier claims that ‘hallucinogenic, and psychotic experiences’ alienates the audience’s context, providing ‘an alternative state of affairs to be perceived as more immediately real.’ (2001, p. 99). Therefore, Kane challenges the world’s previously established rules via relatively beautiful images - a rose (or dafoldil) amongst thorns as it were. Thus, Kane’s Epistemic world is structured on incoherent knowledge, our liminal presence is centred within the oscillation of factual and counterfactual worlds causing such obscurity. In our pursuit for truth, it is the audience’s job to navigate through Kane’s turbulent world, but how does Kane retain our attention? Surely such a world requires gravity to help tether a form of rational understanding? Instead of Mitchell’s way of cohering the text through unifying setting, perhaps there is greater opportunity to unearth meaning through the horrendously violent action of Tinker.

The Deontic World

Kane’s near impossible stage directions prove to be a logistical challenge for any director, but what is perhaps more testing is asking why one might stage such violence, as well as the ethical issues of replicating such brutality. Cleansed’s Deontic world is very much dictated by Tinker’s actions, governing how the Epistemic world appears. Tinker’s violent masculinity encourages his superiority over those within the institution who adopt an anti-normative positionality: homosexual or those who appear to be gender fluid. However if we adopt such a myopic perspective of Tinker, then we reduce the essence of his character to a simple victim/oppressor binary, Kane’s characterisation, like her Epistemic world, acquires greater complexity. As argued above, Tinker’s final moment of tenderness subverts our expectation, thus proving the harm of preconceptions if ‘framing Cleansed through its violence [proving] entirely reductive.’ (Trueman, 2016). The ambiguity of Tinker’s motive for violence propels the Deontic world into questioning, leading us to ask how it serves its inhabitants. 

His reluctance to Grace’s choosing for him to ‘treat’ her infers the character’s queering of his own identity, now his actions would be in servitude of another, instead of his own. Tinker achieves his full capability as scene eighteen sees the newly symbiotic Grace/Graham: the product of Grace’s wishes, although Tinker himself consciously admits he may not have succeeded totally as he apologises for not being a doctor as ‘he kisses Grace very gently.’ (p. 40). Comparing the difference of Tinker’s treatment of genders, it’s likely he wouldn’t have offered such compassion if he saw Grace as the male identifying Graham she asked for.

Grace’s self-subjugation causes us to question the existence of every other character, after all Robin exercises the power of leaving the institution to return with chocolates, suggesting each character has the ability to escape - even the Woman exercises freedom as she opens the booth’s window. Carl and Rod arguably submit most of all to the Deontic world, through the loss of life, limb, and the ability to speak. Tinker even enacts an anally penetrative method of torture using a pole, interestingly a synonym for a rod, to test Carl’s loyalty for his lover, Rod. George Orwell’s ‘Room 101’ resonates as Carl saves himself, similarly to Winston begging O’Reilly to torture Julia instead. This clear act of betrayal is arguably the greatest moment where loyalty is threatened most and Tinker’s toying of the couple’s loyalty characterises the Deontic world as a sadistic game. Despite this repetitive goading building in intensity and the shock of pure violence, the audience's presence highlights the ‘ethical consequences of [our] complicity.’ (Rayner, 2009). We too have chosen to subject ourselves to the Deontic world, especially now that Kane’s reputation isn’t so shocking as it was when Blasted (1995) was first staged. Therefore, when accepting Tinker’s actions and not protecting the characters, we have no question but to conclude that Kane’s Deontic world is of servitude to its inhabitants; appreciating the power of loyality and strength of love, with the aim that they would eventually become ‘cleansed’.

In spite of this however, the Deontic world produces intensely graphic imagery, and if a director’s analysis attempts to distill its realism, then we are witness to such atrocities. We ultimately have more power than the characters as we are guests within Kane’s counterfactual world owning the ability to leave, thus does the Deontic world possess autonomy over us, or are we able to discount Cleansed’s violence? Micheal Billington reflects on Katie Mitchell’s adaptation, claiming ‘relentless exposure to man’s inhumanity to man produces a sense of fatigue rather than of horror’ (2016), thus inferring that one can even become relaxant to such violence. Interestingly Tim Bano’s reflection has a similar, but more active response to Mitchell’s staging, arguing that:

Bano’s point, if ignorant to our wider factual world, suggests that despite its violent ferocity, the foundations of Cleansed's Deontic world can crumble. Kane may also infer this through Tinker’s final moments of tenderness, thus threatening the inextricable link between Deontic and Epistemic worlds. If it is possible to cognitively remove the relevance of the counterfactual world from our own, then what exactly happens to our own morality? Could this be argued as an ignorant response to Kane’s provocative voice, or is it actually possible to witness Cleansed and be untouched by the Deontic? If so, where do we find ourselves if we’re absent from its grasp? I would argue, despite the confusion of the liminal space and the dominance of how the  Deontic world characterises Kane’s Epistemic landscape, a spectator is able to blur the lines of perspective. Despite Rod and Carl’s turbulent experience, they still adore one another to the extent that Rod pays the ultimate price for his lover's survival. It is clear then, that the most dominant world within Kane’s writing can’t be the Deontic, but that which reveals the desires, hopes and fears that manifest into interactions between characters. Thus demonstrating the tenacity of the human spirit - this the final element of Kane’s landscape: the Boulomaeic world. 

The Boulomaeic World

To apply Fuchs’ effective metaphor of the literary planet, her article asks of the text’s 'climate' (p. 6), Kane’s Boulomaeic climate is hot with ‘scorching heat’ (Kane, p. 35) intensifying the world’s humidity. Say the Deontic world is a destructive tornado, the Boulomaeic is the ocean with currents of fear, desire and hope stirring together. The tornado may grasp the water into the air to be tossed across seas but water will settle and remain a constant, offering a supporting buoyancy. This being the reason why this last world is the most evocative, most visceral and most tangible world of all within Kane’s work. Crave (1998) and 4:48 Psychosis (2000) arguably situating only within a Boulomaeic clime due to both texts’ emotional ferocity, but Cleansed is perhaps more powerful as both feeling and longing are products of Kane’s oppressive Deontic world. Despite being inhabitants of the Epistemic world, Kane’s characters are not tightly tethered to its context, Waddngton claims Kane wants us to challenge ‘normativity and look beyond’ preconception (p. 142), as simple description of character limits their potential. If Kane aims for us to appreciate the world holistically, then she constructs character to symbolise a condition of humanity, thus the characters become less definitive people rather ideas of ontological expression. 

Kane’s Boulomaeic world is characterised most through the desire of expression, and often expressing the desire for what is lost: notably trust innocence or a loved one. Carl’s experience is arguably the most oppressed due to his inflicted dismemberment, however his endurance is equally as strong, despite losing the ability to talk, write and dance; Rod and Carl’s love is constant. Inspiringly, they still own the gift of self expression through the most intimate of all: sex, the pair mutually orgasm (p. 36), inferring an enviable symbiosis of spirit. Similar to Grace and Graham, their love transcends death, Rod’s murder exemplifies the loyalty between the two, and through the exchanging and swallowing of rings, they will forever be present within each other. Carl’s desperation for expression is resonant within Robin, who desires the affirmation of the female presence, possibly as a result of inhabiting a setting where they ‘don’t have girls’ (Kane, 9). Despite making references to kissing Grace, Robin’s intention is more innocent by suggesting more committal relationships, such as maternal or marital (20), contrasting against the fetishisation of the Woman. Despite Robin declaring his love for Grace several times (p. 22), she denies his advances due to Graham’s occupation of her own desire. Similar to Grace, Robin’s desire for the opposite gender probes him to wear his idols clothes, as for the second half of the play he adorns Grace’s dress. Francesca Rayner acknowledges Kane’s resonant themes of queerness by concluding the following: 

Tinker’s affirmation of heteronormativity forces the characters to find ways of sharing their endurance of the Deontic experience, and how they can satisfy the desire for each other’s support. It is Tinker’s presence that emphasises the ‘otherness’ of all his victims, [and brings] their queerness, their ambiguity’ to the fore (2016). As argued previously, Rod and Carl are treated as animals, and despite Tinker testing their loyalty to one another, Kane marks their abuse as apathetic experiments due to their anti-normative sexuality. Tinker attempting to deliver Grace’s original request also suggests his view of Rod and Carl being an unsolvable problem, of no use and so discarded to waste away. In spite of this, the victims’ need for love and mutual appreciation of queerness gives strength to each other as they're able to acknowledge their shared presence within the Epistemic world. 

In their acquisition for what is absent, both Grace and Robin feel compelled to almost exhume the figures of their obsession, in the vain hope that it may quell their feeling of loneliness. Grace’s intense desperation for Graham’s presence is resembled through her acceptance of Tinker’s mutilation. Ultimately however, Kane doesn’t conceive an idealised Boulomaeic world where every need is satisfied, the concept of being set within the university causes Robin’s Boulomaeic world to be dominated by fear, weathered by the Deontic experience probing him to escape the Epistemic through suicide. Consequently, despite the Boulomaeic world offering great strength, Kane presents the human spirit as a delicate entity where limitations vary, with loneliness contributing to a person’s mortality. 

Conclusion

Overall, Kane’s elemental world mirrors the turbulent episodic structure of Cleansed’s narrative. Within it, the Epistemic world provides a structure for the characters to exist; the rules of the world offering an ambiguity of truth preventing full disclosure of knowledge to replicate our own naivety of the factual world. The Deontic world is a product of the Epistemic, conceived by someone’s response to their context and through oppressive acts, dictate their state of being characterising Kane’s work. However, it is clear that at Cleansed’s centre is the purity of the Boulomaeic world, placing Einstein’s theory human endeavour at the play’s core. 

Cleansed is a resolutely inspiring love story with its utilisation of extreme violence highlighting the tenacity of the human sprit and how the desires and fears we hold drive us to either resolution or emancipation. Love is indelible, its burning passion remains a constant, leading me to suggest why Cleansed is the most hopeful of all Kane’s work.

Works cited

Bano, T., 2016. Review: Cleansed at the National Theatre. Available at exeuntmagazine.com/reviews/review-cleansed-at-the-national-theatre-2/. (Accessed 2 January 2021).

Clapp, S., 2016. Cleansed review – the first cut was the deepest. Available at www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/feb/28/cleansed-sarah-kane-dorfman-national-theatre-observer-review. (Accessed 2 January 2021).

Fuchs, E., 2004. EF's Visit to a Small Planet: Some Questions to Ask a Play. Theater (New Haven, Conn.), 34(2), pp.4–9.

Kane, S., 1998. Cleansed. London: Methuen.

Kier, E., 2001. The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama. Routledge. 

Billington, M., 2016. Cleansed review – Katie Mitchell plunges us into Sarah Kane's chamber of horrors. Available at www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/feb/24/cleansed-review-katie-mitchell-sarah-kane-dorfman-national-theatre-london. (Accessed 2 January 2021).

National Theatre, [YouTube] 2016. Katie Mitchell on Cleansed. Available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LizhtwXP8A. (Accessed 2 January 2021).

Rayner, F., 2009. Written on the body: gender, violence and queer desire in Sarah Kane's Cleansed. Ex aequo (Oeiras, Portugal), (20), pp.55–64. www.scielo.mec.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0874-55602009000200006&lng=pt&nrm=iso&tlng=en

Saunders, G., 2002. ’Love me or Kill me’ : Sarah Kane and the theatre of extremes. Manchester University Press. 

Trueman, M., 2016. Matt Trueman: Cleansed is more than just shock theatre. Available at https://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/matt-trueman-cleansed-sarah-kane-national_39853.html. (Accessed 2 January 2021).

Waddington, J. “Posthumanist Identities in Sarah Kane.” Vos, L.de & Saunders, G., 2011. Sarah Kane in context, Manchester: Manchester University Press.