4.48 Psychosis

Description

4.48 Psychosis was written throughout the autumn and winter of 1998-99 as Kane battled with one of her recurrent bouts of depression. On February 20, 1999, aged 28, the playwright committed suicide. On the page, the piece looks like a poem. No characters are named, and even their number is unspecified. It could be a journey through one person's mind, or an interview between a doctor and his patient.

Sarah Kane was born in 1971. Her first play, Blasted, was produced at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in 1995. Her second play, Phaedra's Love, was produced at the Gate Theatre in 1996. In April 1998, Cleansed was produced at the Royal Court Theatre Downstairs, and in September 1998, Crave was produced by Paines Plough and Bright Ltd at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh. Her last play, 4.48 Psychosis, premiered at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs in June 2000. Her short film, Skin, produced by British Screen/Channel Four, premiered in June 1997. Sarah Kane died in 1999, and is now recognised as one of the most influential voices in modern European theatre.

'Is it possible, asks the text, for a person to be born in the wrong body, at the wrong time? Yes, is the answer. But sometimes, from that agony, a great soul can wrestle something as beautiful and true as this remarkable play.' * Scotsman (4 November 2008) * `4.48 Psychosis still feels immediate, intimate and raw - if anything, the onward march of our confessional culture has made it feel even more contemporary.' * Aleks Sierz, Tribune, 7.8.09 * `Sarah Kane's last play, written before she killed herself 10 years ago, has been described as a theatrical suicide note. That sells it short. It is so much more: a manifesto for living by one about to die.' * Lyn Gardner, Guardian, 25.7.09 * `an extraordinary exploration of the human condition, and of psychological disintegration in particular. It exposes the terrifying clarity of the acute depressive's unblinking certainty that their existence is intolerable and can never be otherwise; the play's title refers to Kane's early morning moments of such cruel lucidity.' * Sam Marlowe, The Times, 28.7.09 * `Kane's fractured poetry, lacerating in its anguish and devil-driven dark humour' * Sam Marlowe, The Times, 28.7.09 * What we get is not just a painfully funny play about one person's struggle with mental illness, but also one that scratches all the scabs of inadequacy, failure and despair that we all bear. * Guardian *