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Sarah Kane was born in 1971. Her parents were journalists who were evangelically religious. Perhaps this contributes to "4.48 Psychosis" coming across as part born-again sermon, part eye-witness reportage on a black world of suicidal depression. However, despite the word "psychosis" in the title, there is nothing psychotic about Kane's captivating theatrical communication to her audience. Paradoxically, there is something life-affirming in this hymn to despair. Kane splits her protagonist's self into four actresses whose identities shift. She interweaves fantasy and delusion with her life experience, including her relationship with the psychiatrist in the mental hospital in which the play is set. Like opera singers in a quartet, the cast manage to deliver their own narratives in competition and harmony with each other. The staging is sparse and small-scale, perfectly matching the intimacy of the Burton Taylor and the writing of the play. The cast shows great sensitivity and depth. The play opens and closes with the insistent, perhaps accusatory and unanswered question to the protagonist: "what do you offer that makes people so supportive?" The miracle of the play is that despite her self-loathing and lack of interest in people other than herself, the main character manages to keep the audience interested and supportive. Perhaps this is because she fluently articulates a feeling of disintegration and alienation, which many will have encountered at some point during the uncertainties of early adulthood. If there is any defect in this play, however, it is that there is at times a clumsy gap between high and low styles of language. Sarah Kane hanged herself in hospital at the age of 27, but this is tangential to the experience of watching the play. It is very much more than a suicide note and could just as much have been written by a super-intelligent psychiatrist. E.T., 18.02.03 |
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