4.48 Psychosis (Methuen Modern Plays)

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There’d been these tabloid frenzies over her early plays, and we wanted this play to be received as a play.

Ensemble, 12 players: alto flute + picc, 3 saxes (all sop+bar), piano+synth with organ pedalboard, accordion, 2 percussion (solo roles, some playing from memory), vln+vla, 2 vla, bass. Philip Venables’ award-winning operatic adaptation of Kane’s play is the first ever permitted adaptation of any of her work. This dilemma is possibly one of the reasons that over the years theatremakers around the world have avoided staging British playwright-director Sarah Kane’s enigmatic yet distressing plays. 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.To me the heart of it is a love story – what does it mean to love, can we love, all those questions. So, my journey in this project began by trying to comprehend her previously written plays,” says Durga. Experiential theatre," she said, "purposes to make the audience feel as though they have experienced what was presented before them onstage. Some portions appear to be dialogue, perhaps between a patient and a dictatorial clinician (“ Oh dear, what’s happened to your arm? In February 1999, she killed herself at King’s College hospital, south London, three days after a previous suicide attempt.

View image in fullscreen Alan Williams, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Ingrid Craigie and Paul Thomas Hickey in Crave at the Traverse, Edinburgh, in 1998. The opera was awarded a Royal Philharmonic Society for Best Large Scale Composition 2017, a British Composer Award for Best Stage Work 2017, a UK Theatre Award for Best Opera 2016 and it was shortlisted for an Olivier Award for Best Opera in 2017 and a Southbank Award for Best Opera in 2017. Other themes that run throughout the script, in addition to depression, are those of isolation, dependency, relationships, and love. Contemplation and discussion of suicide are prominent and while there is no strict narrative or timeline, certain issues and events are clearly dealt with: deciding whether to take medication to treat depression, the desires of the depressed mind, the effects and effectiveness of medication, self-harm, suicide and the possible causes of depression.The production starred Polish film actress Magdalena Cielecka and featured a number of other performers from TR Warszawa in supporting roles. According to Kane's friend and fellow-playwright David Greig, the title of the play derives from the time, 4:48 a. Certain images are repeated within the script, particularly that of "hatch opens, stark light"; a repeated motif in the play is " serial sevens" which involves counting down from one hundred by sevens, a bedside test often used by psychiatrists to test for loss of concentration or memory. We were very worried about creating the right context,” remembers Ian Rickson, then artistic director.