4.48 Psychosis
By Sarah Kane
Tangram Theatre Company, Old Red Lion & Arcola
Performed in English
Director Daniel Goldman has done a fine job of creating an uncomfortable, essential experience.
TIME OUT CRITICS’ CHOICE
Impressive and touches the soul with an almost unbearable bright, white light, shining out beams of theatrical bliss and pain.
Rogues and Vagabonds
Normally going to see Sarah Kane’s 4.48 psychosis on a Saturday evening would not fill one with the joys of life. But this production does.
Indie London
Suicide note? 4.48 is much more than that, and Tangram’s production gives new resonance to one of the 1990s’ most strongly poetic theatrical voices.
British Theatre Guide
The Dragon is simultaneously a light-hearted rendition of a fairy tale and a very serious political satire that fully justifies a trip down to the Elephant and Castle.
British Theatre Guide
If the overall parable is clear enough, its enactment is still startling, and drag on the performance certainly does not.
Reviewsgate
4.48 Pyschosis tells the story of a woman who is depressed, on medication, seeking help and thinking about ending her life. Written in poetic form on the page, the original production at the Royal Court was performed by three actors in victim, perpetrator, bystander roles. In this production, a chorus of seven women from multiple nationalities performed as all the characters, including the drugs the woman takes, sometimes speaking alone, sometimes in dialogue, and often in one voice.
Cast
Pola Anton, Effi Dementi, Tracey-Anne Liles, Tessa Nicholson, Rebecca Pownall, Emily Randall, Gehane Strehler
Creative Team
Daniel Goldman (Director), Jana Manekshaw (Producer), Kirsten Turner (Deputy Stage Manager), Phoebe Cross (Deputy Stage Manager), Lawrence Stromski (Lighting), Margaret Krawecka (Set and Costume Design), Adam Doran (Sound), Bradley Fehler (Poster Design), Alice Lambert (Photography)
4.48 Psychosis was my first professional show as a director. I’d chosen the play because I’d lost two friends to death by suicide in the previous two years. I’d chosen the play because I thought it was absolutely beautiful and terrifying. If you’ve ever seen it written on the page, it’s a remarkable piece of writing and I was excited by the challenge.
I remember carrying a lot of my Lecoq training over into the production. Thankfully I had a seven strong cast of actresses, and a brilliant team around me, who never allowed a single moment to be just an exercise or a demonstration of some skill or technique. Everything had to work on its own account and we worked tirelessly to make it so. I learned shedloads making that show.
In terms of the show itself, perhaps the biggest discovery we made, was that this play was not a play about suicide or mental health but instead that it was a play about love. Wanting to be loved. Wanting to love. And the devastation of not being able to do or have either. More than anything else, this was the idea that shaped our whole approach.
All photos © Alice Lambert