When Blasted was first performed in 1996, it received a mauling from the critics. Just about every nauseous phrase in the book was used to question the production and the reasons for its being staged.

Andrew King as Ian and Charlotte Cowell as Cate

Eight years on, it may be that the text arouses less animosity, but it's still easy to see why it was questioned so severely at its premiere.

Sarah Kane's storyline is disjointed, the spectacle often revolting. A cruel, foulmouthed tabloid journalist has booked into a three-and-a half-starred hotel together with a young, simple-minded past girlfriend.

His utterances are peppered with gross racist comments and his sexual moves on the girl are crude and rejected.

There are truly moving moments when the girl is left alone in the room. You sense she is overwhelmed by the modest luxury. Without a word being spoken, she conveys both fear and wonderment.

Ian, the journalist, is played by Andrew King and Cate the simpleton, by Charlotte Covell. Both are excellent in what must be painful roles.

The fact that Ian's demands are rejected does not stop him from satiating his wants through violence. Cate is driven almost out of her mind by his physical and mental cruelty. Her poor body goes into convulsions and fits to escape the torment.

He beds her and rapes her every which-way and morning sees her a broken soul.

I will tell no more of the tale, except to say that from here on in the ugliness of the plot intensifies. Ian and Cate are joined by a soldier -- played by Devesh Patel. We remain in the hotel bedroom but through some really powerful devices and effects, the horrors of warfare and the bestiality of man is presented with terrifying clarity.

It is impossible not to be affected by the production, particularly with a cast as strong as this trio. It was a bleak walk home after the show with the recurring question "why". Why stage this piece? What do we gain from it?

The only justification I could find was that no matter how vile so much of the action most definitely was, man, somewhere in this world, had behaved time and again precisely as portrayed, and we should not try to avoid that gruesome fact.

Blasted is at the Oxford Fire Station until January 24.

DON FATHERS