‘In Yer Face’ theatre describes the wave of new writing in the 1990s that was aggressive, raw, confrontational and angry. Designed to assault the audience’s
sensibilities it explored the gut-renching extremes of the human condition and rammed the most extreme excesses of contemporary society down its throat. Many of the characters
are morally reprehensible and the language aggressive and raw.
Sarah Kane’s Blasted in 1995 caused one of the biggest press outcries against this brutal form of theatre. The play, which contained rape and cannibalism was condemned
as morally reprehensible. The Daily Mail called it ‘this disgusting feast of filth’. However Kane was not the first young writer to create work that shocked
the sensibilities of the press. Neilson’s Penetrator which opened at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh in 1993 with a terrifying knife attack, had critics asking
whether such a sick play should have been put on at all.
One of the most successful ‘In Yer Face’ productions was Mark Ravenhill’s Shopping and Fucking which opened at the Royal Court in 1996. ‘A shocker
in every sense of the Word’ declared The Daily Mail.
Introduction
The Royal Court Theatre
