A highly debated topic is the influence of violent content in media such as film, television, music, video games and theatre.
Oscar Wilde’s “Salome” shocked British theatre with its display of a femme fatale and the violent beheading scene. Sarah Kane's “Blasted” features sexual assault, homosexual rape, eye-gouging, infant cannibalism and suicide. In Harold Pinter’s play “The Homecoming,” the same message is delivered by means of referring to
violence instead of staging it. When exploring the staging of violence, it is seen that this has a negative effect on the audience’s perception. The effect that a play has on the audience can be measured by critics’ reviews. This is especially true when exploring reviews on Sarah Keane’s “Blasted”. According to Kane, the use of violence on stage is essential to deliver the fundamental message of her play to the audience. Rarely has any play provoked such critical fury as Sarah Kane’s “Blasted”. On its first run at the Royal Court Theatre in 1995, it was savaged by almost every newspaper in the country. According to these papers, the play was a “disgusting feast of filth”, and “a devoid of intellectual or artistic merit.” “Salomé,” by Oscar Wilde, received a negative reaction even before it ran. In 1892, the play was denied a license for production in London on the grounds that it portrayed biblical characters, which was forbidden by law. When “Salomé” was finally performed on stage in 1893 in France, it got poor reviews. Regina Gagnier noted that the “sex” portrayed through Salomé “is without purpose of production.” So according to Gagnier, along with other critics, staging sexual behaviour has no function within a play. Harold Pinter’s play “The homecoming” however, received more positive evaluation. It has proved to be among the most controversial of Pinter’s plays. The messages that playwrights convey to the audience, whether with or without the use of violence, vary. In “Salomé,” Wilde gives the audience open access to the princess’s perverted desire. Wilde wrote his one-act play “Salomé”, originally written in French, to shock audiences with its spectacle of obstinate passions. Salomé’s control over King Heriod results in using the power, which she gains from the king for her dancing, to destroy the system that imbued her with this power. Salomé was not meant to be a realistic work. Rather it's a poetic text about the dark side of sexuality. Wilde's intention is to depict the violent, even fatal effects of the awakening of the sexual urge in an adolescent. Sarah Kane's intention was to show the audience the horrors and cruelties of war and death. By actually staging violence and sex, Kane hoped to bring this terror closer to the audience. Pinter’s play “The Homecoming” explores the problem of personal identity and the verification of experience through humorous speech. It offers bleakness, wit and the power of feminism. The cruelty and humour come through, but the terror does not which was exactly the intention Pinter had in this play. The effect of a play on the audience is a very important aspect of delivering a play’s message. The only question is whether staging violence is important for the audience’s
reception of a play or not. When exploring the effect Sarah Kane’s “Blasted” had on the audience, it is seen that her purpose of showing the audience the cruelties of war failed because the audience found the play extremely shocking and disgusting. Rather similar was the reception of Oscar Wilde’s play “Salomé.” It was not only the unsavoury portrayal of biblical characters that angered the world of theatre; it was also appalled by the spectacle of female desire. However, in Pinter’s “The Homecoming” the characters did not stage violence and sexual behaviour but only referred to it. The reception of this play was much better than “Salome” and “Blasted” since “The Homecoming” was, according to the audience, not as shocking to see. It showed no indecency and still the message cae through. Therefore the audience knew that Ruth was to become a prostitute and Max was indeed seen as a tyrant. The viewers understood the message of the play without the violence and obscene scenes displayed. Even when a play’s theme contains violence, it is enough just to refer to violent actions through the lines of the characters, and therefore staging violence is unnecessary for the audience reception. “Salomé” has been performed in many different ways because Wilde's version of the story has generated several other artistic works. Wilde's play became the source of inspiration for Richard Strauss's one-act opera also named “Salomé”. In his opera, Herod's lust for Salome is emphasized, which Salome uses to gain her wishes by performing the famous “Dance of the Seven Veils.” Salome, in turn, desires to have John the Baptist. In the end, the only way that Salome may have John is that she must demand only his head be given to her. Salome satisfies her passion by kissing the dead lips of John's decapitated head, who had previously, like in Wilde’s version, rejected her. The reception of the less obscene performance of the play improved the reviews and Strauss’s play became more famous than Wilde’s. Without the obscene scenes the audience understood the overall meaning of the play better. This means that the use of sexual intercourse and violence on stage, are not necessary to deliver the message of a play.