The final curtain

Sarah Kane certainly made headlines. She burst onto the UK theatre scene as a young playwright ready to make a difference by dealing with topics that others dared not touch. Her career kicked off when she wrote Blasted (which was recently presented locally by Unifaun Theatre Company) and its controversial representation of what happens to a society when it is ravaged by war.
Her work wasn’t exactly loved instantly, and early reviews were scathing. And, despite a notable improvement in the way her work was viewed by critics and audiences alike, severe depression led to her suicide just four years after Blasted’s premiere. 4.48 Psychosis was her last play; it will be produced locally this weekend.
“In my opinion, Sarah Kane is an important British playwright whose innovative and courageous contribution to contemporary theatre is not only extremely valid but also challenging to actors and directors alike,” director Albert Marshall explained, “especially to directors, in fact.
“Kane is provocative and has justly earned herself the reputation of an enfant terrible of the British theatre. She wrote 4.48 Psychosis over the year 1998, and perhaps early into 1999. She died a short while later.”
Rumours after her death argued that 4.48 Psychosis was her suicide note to the world, a final message that she wanted to pass on about the workings of the mind and depression. Mr Marshall explains: “Simon Kane – Sarah’s brother and executor of her estate – pointed out that 4.48 Psychosis is ‘about suicidal despair, so it is understandable that some people will interpret the play as a thinly veiled suicide note’. But, he continued, ‘this simplistic view does both the play and my sister’s motivation for writing it an injustice.’ However, some critics have had difficulty in distinguishing the play from the reality of Kane’s life. But if 4.48 Psychosis is worth seeing, it should be because it’s a good play and not because it hints at its author’s depression, her voluntary stays at London’s Maudsley Hospital or her previous attempts at suicide.”
Acclaimed around the globe, 4.48 Psychosis explores a mental state in which the normal boundaries between imagination and reality evaporate. It is a journey into a mind teeming with competing voices, reflecting the countless parts of a persona. 4.48 Psychosis gives expression to a condition that often cannot find its voice, and from which many people are unable to escape. It is brave, defiant, poetic, savage, tender, terrifying... and even humorous.
But having been written in the late 1990s, obvious changes have taken place. Is the play still relevant? “Thematically, this playwright explores frameworks of human perversion, deep human anguish, abject mental aberrations, neurosis and, above all, the tragedy of the aftermath of social rejection. Isn’t this reminiscent of contemporary consciousness, Malta being no exception? As far as Kane’s masterpiece is concerned, as long as neurotics keep constructing edifices in thin air, as long as psychotics keep living in them and as long as psychiatrists keep collecting the rent, 4.48 Psychosis will surely retain its social relevance and striking eloquence.”
The staging of the play certainly throws up some challenges, but Mr Marshall is confident that the chosen cast and production methods will be successful. “The cast is made up of generous actors who came forward knowing full well that they were in for a gruelling theatrical experience. They were forewarned about my cutting-edge reading of an already highly demanding text, and they accepted the challenge.
Those who choose to come and watch us play should come prepared to open up to some ‘in-yer-face’ theatre and to accept an invitation to change their outlook towards the underside of mental illness and the anguish of depression.”
The actors facing this challenge are Chris X. Grech, Olivia-Ann Marmarà, Yvette Buhagiar and Marvic Cardona.
The show is being jointly produced by the Manoel Theatre and the Malta Drama Centre. Mario Azzopardi, director of the MCD, said: “We chose an uncompromising play by Sarah Kane to mark the 10th anniversary of her death at her own hands, when she hanged herself in hospital. 4.48 Psychosis is a very powerful and provocative text, which turned Kane into a major force in post-modern British Theatre, notwithstanding her early demise at the age of 28. The exciting thing about 4.48 is that it is not a prescriptive text in terms of staging and this will allow Mr Marshall, a very inventive director, to exploit to the full the open-endedness of the play.
What is even more interesting is that in his interpretation he is leaning towards a ‘religious’ reading of Kane, so the clinical space she creates is turned into a peculiar altar of ritualistic sacrifice. I am sure this will be the play of the season.”

4.48 Psychosis is being staged at the Manoel Theatre today and tomorrow. Tickets may be obtained by phone on 2124 6389, by e-mail: bookings@teatrumanoel.com.mt or online: www.teatrumanoel.com.mt.

Source: Weekender, February 28, 2009