4.48 Psychosis
4.48 Psychosis | |
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Written by | Clinical depression |
Setting | None |
4.48 Psychosis is the final play by British playwright Sarah Kane. It was her last work, first staged at the Royal Court's Jerwood Theatre Upstairs on 23 June 2000, directed by James Macdonald, nearly one and a half years after Kane's death on 20 February 1999. The play has no explicit characters or stage directions. Stage productions of the play vary greatly, therefore, with between one and several actors in performance; the original production featured three actors. According to Kane's friend and fellow playwright David Greig, the title of the play derives from the time, 4:48 a.m., when Kane, in her depressed state, often woke.[1]
Subject
The play is usually interpreted as an expression of the experience of
Form
4.48 Psychosis is composed of twenty-four sections which have no specified setting, characters or stage directions. Its language varies between dialogues, confessions and contemplative poetic monologues reminiscent of
Productions
Owing to its form, productions of the play differ vastly in their staging, casting and design. Aside from the initial production of 4.48 Psychosis at the Royal Court in 2000, there have been performances of 4.48 Psychosis at The Theatre Les Bouffes Du Nord in Paris (2005),
A critically acclaimed adaptation of the play, as translated into Polish with English language surtitles, was performed at the 2008 Edinburgh International Festival by the Polish theatre company TR Warszawa. The production starred Polish film actress Magdalena Cielecka and featured a number of other performers from TR Warszawa in supporting roles. This was a revival of TR Warszawa's earlier production of the play, as performed in Warsaw.[2] In 2003, there was a successful staging in Brazil, which played to a full house for six consecutive months in São Paulo, and also gained media attention for its defying gender aspect, as the role was performed by male actor Luiz Päetow.[3] Indian director Arvind Gaur performed this play as a one-woman show with British actress Ruth Sheard in 2005.[4]
Reception
4.48 Psychosis has divided critical opinions. Michael Billington of The Guardian newspaper asked, "How on earth do you award aesthetic points to a 75-minute suicide note?"[5] Charles Spencer of the Telegraph said "it is impossible not to view it as a deeply personal howl of pain.”[6] David Greig considered the play to be "perhaps uniquely painful in that it appears to have been written in the almost certain knowledge that it would be performed posthumously."[1]
Opera
An operatic adaptation of 4.48 Psychosis, commissioned by
References to the play
The British indie-rock band Tindersticks released a song called "4.48 Psychosis" on their album Waiting for the Moon. The song's spoken-word lyrics are excerpted from the play.
References
- ^ a b David Greig, introduction to Sarah Kane: Complete Plays 2001
- ^ The Scotsman Archived 2009-02-18 at the Wayback Machine, 16 August 2008
- ^ "theatre article in Portuguese". folhasp newspaper.
- ^ Sumati Mehrishi Sharma (31 December 2005). "Mind Games". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 17 February 2009. Retrieved 9 October 2008.
- ^ The Guardian 30 June 2000
- ^ The Telegraph 14 May 2001
- ^ Wroe, Nicholas (21 May 2016). "How Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis became an opera". the Guardian.
- ^ "4.48 Psychosis review". The Independent. 26 May 2016. Archived from the original on 18 June 2016.
- ^ "4.48 Psychosis opera is rawly powerful and laceratingly honest - review". The Telegraph. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
Citations
- Greig, David. 2001. Introduction. Complete Plays by Sarah Kane. London: Methuen. ISBN 978-0-413-74260-5. p.ix-xviii.
- Kane, Sarah. 2001. 4:48 Psychosis. In Complete Plays. London: Methuen, 2001. ISBN 978-0-413-74260-5. p. 203-245.
- Ryan, Betsy Alayne. 1984. Gertrude Stein's Theatre of the Absolute. Theater and Dramatic Studies Ser., 21. Ann Arbor and London: UMI Research Press. ISBN 0-8357-2021-7.
Further reading
- ISSN 0028-792X.
External links
- 4.48 Psychosis at the Literary Encyclopedia