In this portrayal of Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis, mental illness is starkly depicted as a blank and repetitious tedium. Quotidian superficialities are maintained as a bleak reminder that depression and inner unrest can permeate even the most rigid of social constructions.
According to fellow playwright David Greig, Psychosis is a play that is “uniquely painful in that it appears to have been written in the almost certain knowledge that it would be performed posthumously”. Kane took her life shortly after the play was completed making it a doubtlessly challenging play to dramatise without rendering it a work of self-indulgence. This production fell just short of meeting the challenge.
The difficulty is that the inevitable conclusion can only be that of suicide, a conclusion that may be anticipated from the start. As a result, the play’s monotony became tiresome well before its denouement was anywhere in sight. After half an hour, it began to drag and intentionally or otherwise, the desperation, frustration and boredom of the characters began to infect the audience. The props, set and costume provided a comprehensive while not overpowering backdrop for the cast, aptly conveying the gloominess and clinical discontent experienced by the characters.
This is not to say that this adaptation in some way let down the integral message of this intensely emotive play, but rather that the extreme boredom and frustration Kane depicts does not perhaps translate into stimulating theatre.
Manchester University Drama Festival
6th-8th March
2.5 Stars
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