4.48 Psychosis

4.48 Psychosis

"4.48 Psychosis" is a play by British playwright Sarah Kane. It was her last work, first staged at the Royal Court's Jerwood Theatre Upstairs on June 23, 2000, nearly one and a half years after Kane's February 20, 1999 death. The play has no explicit characters or stage directions and appears more similar to an E. E. Cummings poem on the page than a performance piece (in this it resembles the dramaturgical strategies of the American modernist playwright Gertrude Stein).See Ryan (1984).] Stage productions of the play vary greatly, therefore, with between one and several actors in performance.

The play is written from the point of view of someone with severe clinical depression, a disorder from which Kane suffered. A repeated motif in the play is "serial sevens": counting down from one hundred by sevens, a bedside test often used by psychiatrists to test for loss of concentration or memory. According to her friend and fellow-playwright David Greig, [David Greig, introduction to "Sarah Kane: Complete Plays" 2001] the title of the play derives from the time, 4:48 a.m., when Kane, in her depressed state often woke. Greig considered the play to be 'perhaps uniquely painful in that it appears to have been written in the almost certain knowledge that it would be performed posthumously.' [ David Greig, op.cit] Some critics have had difficulty in distinguishing the play from the reality of Kane's life. [ David Greig, op.cit] Michael Billington of "The Guardian" newspaper asked, "How on earth do you award aesthetic points to a 75-minute suicide note?" ["The Guardian", 30 June 2000 [http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4035241,00.html] ]

A critically acclaimed adaptation of the play, as translated into Polish with English language supertitles, was performed at the 2008 Edinburgh International Festival by the Polish theatre company TR Warzawa. The production starred Polish actress and film star Magdalena Cielecka and featured a number of other performers from TR Warzawa in supporting roles. This was a revival of TR Warzawa's earlier production of the play, as performed in Warsaw. ["The Scotsman", 16 August 2008 [http://www.edinburgh-festivals.com/reviews/Theatre-review-448-Psychosis.4397691.jp] ]

References to the play

The British band Tindersticks released a song called "4:48 Psychosis" on their album "Waiting For The Moon". The song is based on the play and includes spoken extracts from the play.Fact|date=August 2008

The Swedish band Aktiv Dödshjälp released an album called 4:48, based on the play.Fact|date=August 2008

Works cited

* Greig, David. 2001. Introduction. "Complete Plays" by Sarah Kane. London: Methuen. ISBN 0413742605. p.ix-xviii.
* Kane, Sarah. 2001. "4:48 Psychosis". In "Complete Plays". London: Methuen, 2001. ISBN 0413742605. p.203-245.
* Ryan, Betsy Alayne. 1984. "Gertrude Stein's Theatre of the Absolute". Theater and Dramatic Studies Ser., 21. Ann Arbor and London: UMI Research Press. ISBN 0835720217.


=References=

External links

* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2001/05/14/btkane14.xml Daily Telegraph review of "4.48 Psychosis"]
* [http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=15075 "4.48 Psychosis"] at the Literary Encyclopedia
* [http://iainfisher.com/kane/eng/sarah-kane-study-ms.html A Controlled Detonation: The Protean Voice of 4:48 Psychosis (first seven fragments)] detailed analysis of 4.48 Psychosis


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