4.48 Psychosis (Methuen Modern Plays)

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Deaf or hearing, this production – in spoken English and British Sign Language – is a truly frightful treat for all the family! The six female singers in rehearsal for 4.48 Psychosis. Photograph: Stephen Cummiskey/Royal Opera House Sarah Kane’s life and career came to an abrupt end, when the playwright hanged herself at a London hospital in February 1999. When 4.48 Psychosis premiered one month after her suicide, the connection between the playwright and her work was apparent to all. As one character puts it, "I dreamt I went to the doctor’s and she gave me eight minutes to live. I’d been sitting in the f**king waiting room half an hour." Kane was 28 years old. In 2000 Bond wrote that "Her suicide has to be understood. She was the most gifted dramatist of her generation. It is said that she killed herself because she was clinically depressed. What does that mean of a writer? Not that her death had a cause, but that her life had no inducement. She saw no future for theatre and so none for herself. But it is possible to see such a future for theatre. Her plays present the need for such a theatre." [22] In 2021 Bond wrote "[Kane] had personal problems but she was destroyed by the theatre industry. Drama had been her umbilical lifeline but the theatre industry tuned it into the rope with which she hanged herself." [23] Works [ edit ]

Frommy pointof view, as a hearing person who doesn’t understand BSL, both the beauty and the difficulty of BSL in this play is the way it can become mime, even dance. When it works, it shines, but when it doesn’t, it looks confusingly like charades. Though not every movement is abstracted language; about halfway through the 80-minuteperformance there is an anarchic dance sequence and the change of movement from expression to suppression is chilling. At one point she contemplates a conclusive method of suicide: take an overdose, slash one's wrists and then hang oneself. "It couldn't possibly be misconstrued," she wryly says, "as a cry for help." Kane struggled with severe depression for many years and was twice voluntarily admitted to the Maudsley Hospital in London. [7] The Insomniac: The character can't sleep, regularly waking up and wanting nothing more than to sleep forever.

In 1998, Kane was included in the Evening Standard 's list of 'London's Top 100 women', which was a list of "The most influential women in the capital". [38] In the same year she was also featured in the newspaper's list of "London's fifty brightest young things". [39] Bold and visually stunning' - The Guardian, "Beautifully portrayed by an extraordinary cast of both deaf and hearing performers." - WhatsOnStage In December 2011, the playwright David Eldridge wrote that "For any playwright of my generation the spirit and experiential theatre of Sarah Kane casts a long shadow. Sarah believed passionately that form ought to be expressive and carry meaning as powerfully as the story of a play. Blasted markedly influenced my adaptation of the film Festen for the stage". [45]

Kutchinsky, Serena (March 2015). "Sarah Kane, Sheffield Theatres: has her time come?". Prospect Magazine . Retrieved 25 February 2021. BREAKING THE SILENCE - Panel Discussion: 5th October:Join Deafinitely Theatre and a panel of deaf mental health professionals for a relaxed panel discussion asking why people, and in particular men, and even more so deaf men, find the topic of mental health taboo to discuss Venue: Old Diorama Arts Centre. Time: 5-6.30pm. (FREE, BSL Interpreted)At the new play, a sombre, poetic and subjective meditation on suicide, the audience watches in near-silence: lovers clutch each other for comfort, someone quietly weeps, and, at the end, one person incongruously rises to applaud the cast. Getting There, centres around Charlie, a deaf young carer who juggles school and friends with care routines, medication, and financial responsibilities at home. A review panel that investigated Kane's death recommended that the communication between medical staff be improved by formalising the procedures that related to the risk assessment of patients. However, a spokesperson from the hospital said that none of these procedures would have prevented her death. [10] a b c Hattenstone, Simon (1 July 2000). "A sad hurrah (part 2)". The Guardian . Retrieved 18 April 2018.

Kane was admitted to the Brunel ward of the King's College Hospital, [10] [11] which was a general ward and not a psychiatric wing. [7] The latter emphasis can be side-stepped in the way the lines are assigned to the fragmented set of protagonists, and Gwinner does it neatly in a revival that may not have the searing spectral power of some European stagings such as Grzegorz Jarzyna’s for TR Warszawa, but which has a piercing clarity. It is performed with admirably restrained emotion by Rakie Ayola, Pearl Chanda and Tom Mothersdale. Brantley, Ben (5 November 2010). "Off Broadway Shows Often Struggle on Broadway - Critic's Notebook". The New York Times. Percussion: two bass drums, two high-strikers, woodsaw & wood, other standard orchestral percussion.

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The overall structure of 4.48 Psychosis is patchwork, episodic and formalized. Some tableaux return periodically, some are grouped around thematic content, and from the patchwork emerges a structural arc, leading towards the final scene, suicide. Most importantly, because the prose is free, the structure non-linear and without fixed characterisation, Kane’s text offers a rare thing for theatre-makers: a dramaturgy that does not depend on who says what. As director Ted Huffman said “ Sarah Kane’s text has a lot of room in it. She leaves room for the director. It’s almost a challenge she lays down, she says ‘here is this text, what will you do with it?‘” (in an interview with Samira Ahmed on Front Row, BBC Radio 4, 24th May 2016). It's beautiful, it's dark, it's funny, it's tragic, it's morbid, it's complex, it's to-the-point, it's hopeful, it's hopeless, it's logical, it's chaotic, it's there, in your face, it's the truth. An operatic adaptation of 4.48 Psychosis, commissioned by Royal Opera and written by British composer Philip Venables, was staged at the Lyric Hammersmith in 2016. The first such adaptation of Kane's works, the production was approved by Sarah Kane's brother, and received critical acclaim. [7] [8] [9] References to the play [ edit ] Before it went on show to the critics and the public, 4.48 played in front of an invited audience – family and friends, colleagues, and fellow playwrights, among them Harold Pinter and Joe Penhall. “It was tough, that preview,” says Evans. “It was such a peculiar evening. The sense of loss was in the room. Everyone was in mourning.” McInnes concurs: “It was strange, but it was also potent. It felt like we had a responsibility to give breath and life to this amazing thing that Sarah had created.” supposedly the time that those with depression wake up, and supposedly a time Sarah herself kept waking up at. 4.48 is variously referred to as something that gives her clarity and grief.

It has been reported that in response to Kane's death there was a minute's silence held on radio in Germany [15] and that theatres in the country dimmed their lights as a mark of respect. [16] Sarah Kane (3 February 1971 – 20 February 1999) was an English playwright, screenwriter and theatre director. She is known for her plays that deal with themes of redemptive love, sexual desire, pain, torture—both physical and psychological—and death. They are characterised by a poetic intensity, pared-down language, exploration of theatrical form and, in her earlier work, the use of extreme and violent stage action.As a piece of theatre, 4.48 Psychosis is grave and haunt ing. James Macdonald directs it with meticulous precison; Daniel Evans, Jo McInnes and Madeleine Potter perform it with unsparing honesty.