Blasted - Sound Design

Introduction to Blasted

Blasted is a prime example of "in ya face theatre", first produced in the Royal Court theatre upstairs in 1995 which only seated 65 people per night.

However, this didn't stop the play from reaching the headlines in British news with titles such as:

“This Disgusting Feast of Filth” - Daily Mail

“a systematic trawl through the deepest pits of human degradation” - London Evening Standard

Sarah Kane (the playwright) undoubtedly made a strong impact on peoples views of theatre and also the Balkans war (in the 1990's). Later releasing plays such as: Phaedra’s Love (1996), Cleansed (1998), Crave (1998) and Sarahs final play 4.48 Psychosis (2000).

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Introduction to Royal Exchange

The Royal Exchange is a theatre located in Manchester which has been producing shows since 1976. The main theatre (aka the module) is located inside an old great hall once know for being one of the worlds centres for cotton trade.

The module itself is a 7 sided theatre in the round. Its weight is around 150 tonnes which resulted in the module needed to be suspended from the great halls floor.

Theres also a studio space, set up in an end on configuration. Within the great hall there are also a multitude of shops.

For sound the Royal Exchange has an interesting set up. Since the module is in the round the sound system is set in a surround sound configuration with the average performance using around 70 loudspeakers. There's also a wide range of equipment on offer as can be seen in the images.

Initial Ideas and Inspiration

To help find inspiration I find it useful to define some key themes about the play and some history.

After the first read through I was left completely baffled once the bomb goes off at the end of scene 2. I couldn't piece together what was happing. This lead to the idea of Keeping the play naturalistic towards the first half and then becoming more experimental and abstract in the second half.

When researching the play you find it's centred around the Balkans war in the 1990's. From here it begins to make sense that the second half is the injustices of war being put in front of the bystanders (in this case the audience).

One of the key themes that stood out for me instantly was a power dynamic. We witness Ian manipulate Cate and she's groomed into sexual favours. Ian clearly has a dependence on Cate sexually and Cate has a dependency on Ian emotionally and financially. Due to this I think wealth is a key part in the play as well as it still being a tool of manipulation used today.

When thinking about what "in ya face theatre" makes you feel the group unanimously agreed it can be quite intimate and personal. This lead to some of the inspirations for the design coming from immersive theatre.


One of my inspirations which is quite apparent in the pre show section is the Salford Museum and Art gallery. At the gallery there is an immersive art installation. This art installation uses sound to create the atmosphere of an old Victorian street. Audio is payed out of loudspeakers behind doors and windows to create the sense that they're people living there. I found this to be very effective.

Another inspiration is when I watched mother courage in the Royal Exchange. Due to the pandemic it's one of the only times I've been able to be in the venue. This was the first in the round show I'd ever scene and the use of blanks being fired, even though the timing was obvious, still made me jump and showed how extra amplification isn't always required due to the way sound travels in the room.

Pre-show - Sound Design

Before the show begins to create a more immersive feel I wanted to to trigger the audiences senses once they entered the room. To do this I wanted to have some form of live music. Since the show is set in a wealthy hotel I visualised it to be a location where people would go for an event, stay the night and leave in the morning. So the great hall would act as a hall in this situation and at every formal event I've experienced with wealthy backers theres always been live music specifically using a grand piano. However, since the Hall space, from memory, can get rather crowded, instead alongside the set designer, we decided to use the studio space as a "lobby". After looking at costing I decided to hire a self playing piano as I think it still brings the same "wow" factor as other forms of live music, with the preprogrammed classical music bringing a sense of wealth and status. The Piano I've chosen is the Broadway MK11 Baby Grand Digital Piano. If further amplification is required this could be connected to a DI box or into a local stage-box to be connected to the royal exchange sound system. The piano would play before audience members are let into the studio space and stop once all audience members are inside the module. Cost: £299 for 4 weeks and delivery.

I'd also like to have audio being played inside the module at each door to allow audience members to listen in to different conversations within the module (which is being treated as a hotel Bedroom). This is to aid an immersive experience as well as to help the audience suspend their disbelief. I want each audience member to feel as if entering the module is entering a hotel room by experiencing these "through the keyhole" convocations. To do this I would use the loudspeakers in the module to play short audio clips of dialogue at different doors with breaks in between. I'm also not shy about playing the same audio over again as the audience will understand what is being done and know that there isn't actually anyone behind the doors due to the glass walls. An example of the sound can be heard in the video towards the bottom of the page.
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Piano

First Half - Sound Design

To quickly summarise the first half of the play, Ian and Cate enter the hotel room. Kate has a fit and Ian "simulates sex". It's later heavily suggested that Ian has sexually injured Kate. Kate then manipulates Ian almost in an eye for eye tooth for a tooth fashion. A solider enters, urinates on some pillows and a bomb goes off. During this the named SFX are: taps running, showers running, Door knocking, phone ringing, rain (transitional sound), car backfiring and a bomb (mortar) explosion on the hotel room.

When it comes to general SFX such as taps running and also showers. Since this is off stage I also want to use one of the spare loudspeakers for example the JBL control 23' to play the audio out of. Since there's a moment where the tap is left running for a prolonged amount of time I didn't want to use the standard rig as there would be the sound of water running over some audience members heads which may be quite distracting as to whats happening on stage. This would be located in the quick costume change areas as this is where the entrances and exits are located.

Between scenes I decided rain could just sound like static and I didn't see a need for it. After further research I found that it was just to hide set changes thus instead, as a group, we decided that the passing of time was important however to not use rain. Initially I planed to play audio sped up but after a few attempts and with some external views it was agreed that would be rather condescending to the audience so instead what I would do is support the Video Designer and focused more on the audio source than the content. Since the source of the video is coming from a TV I wanted to have the audio come from the same location again aiding this naturalistic idea. I decided a sound bar would be the most appropriate choice as it will connect to the TV but also the set in general. An example would be "Sony HT-S20R Bluetooth Sound Bar with Subwoofer and Rear Speakers, Black". It 400 watts and the the bar could face one way and other loudspeakers facing the other war giving relatively good coverage to the audience.

A sound I do want to cover is how the bomb explosion would work. After listening and watching videos of mortar bombs I noticed that theres 2 main parts to the sound: the arrival (your typical whistling noise) and the explosion once it's made contact. To do this I wanted not only to have the sound of the bomb but the feeling of it. After speaking to Simon Curtis he informed me about the fact that the lower seating had subwoofers built into them that could generate low enough frequencies to feel. Not only this but theres also some concert buttkickers that could be positioned on the second floor. Also since the Module is suspend the sound would be carried through the infrastructure. By aiding the sound with an LFO this would create the kinetic quality of sound. For the audible section we would start at the top of the module with the high whistle slowly getting louder and lower in pitch. Then move the sound quickly from the Basket through the fills on the second floor, to the ground floor and into the subs. Once that has happened I'd fill the loudspeakers with a high hissing sound to emulate tinnitus.

Sound Bar

Second Half - Sound Design

To quickly summarise the second half of the play. The bomb has just exploded, Ian talks to the soldier, then gets eyes sucked out and raped during the soldiers PTSD moment. The soldier then kills himself and Cate returns with a baby. Everyone is hungry so Kate goes to get food, Ian eats the baby, crawls in a hole attempts suicide and ends the play with the words "thank you".

During this I want to have an atmospheric sound of war playing through the loudspeakers outside the module to highlight how the play transports us from a hotel room in leads to the Balkans war. However these sounds wouldn't be specific to a time era as we want to show how the seeds of war can be found at any point.

I've also created an audio track to be played during the moment where Ians eyes are eaten. As the group has decided to have ribbon used during that scene to help create a sense of discomfort I've chosen to create sound that would make all the audience members feel a sense of misophonia. As some may find intimate sounds such as breathing relaxing I've chosen to make the sounds rather unsettling. An example of the sound can be heard in the video towards the bottom of the page.

After this the soldier commits suicide and to do this the lights would go to blackout and the use of a blank being fired from a gun would shock the audience and when the lights come back on the soldier would be visually lifeless. The sound of the blank firing would signify the death of the soldier as well as bringing a sharp stop to all other sounds on stage. After this Video will play some footage through the TV and sound bar, followed by Cates entrance.

For Cates entrance I wanted to (during the blackout) again add further emphasis to the loss of Ians sight. For this I want to have it so that when Cate knocks on the door to enter the room an LFO is paired to the sound or the plug in MH thump plugin side-chained to a microphone (on of the royal exchange MKe2) attached to the door. The result would be a powerful thud sound that the audience could feel but couldn't see the origin of. An example of the sound can be heard in the video towards the bottom of the page.

Other images