4.48 Psychosis (Methuen Modern Plays)

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Some of Chicago’s most talented theater artists have brought their unique points of view to our stages as part of the Visiting Company Initiative. Sarah Kane burst on the London stage at the age of 24, in a media frenzy of scorn, derision and distaste for her work. A sequence of elliptical fragments, fractured and emotionally lacerating, it apparently portrayed a mind in the throes of breakdown, raging against doctors who do not (or will not) understand. Being someone who himself has struggled with mental health issues in the past, reading Sara’s works made me feel like a miniature self navigating her mind.

in its small upstairs studio, the very same space where Blasted had premiered five years earlier, but even when tickets rapidly sold out, many in the building remained nervous.

Replete with shocking confessions, piercing monologues and raw visuals, there aren’t any positive takeaways from the one-hour-12-minute performance to be honest. Psychosis was first performed at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs , London, on 23 June 2000. Psychosis is a ‘choreopoem’ that follows the upheavals of a girl’s psyche, who really wanted to live but was never in love with life.

Indian director Arvind Gaur performed this play as a one-woman show with British actress Ruth Sheard in 2005. She understands theatre at such a deep level; in some ways I don’t think we’ve caught up with her yet. Psychosis was the astonishing final work of the radical British playwright Sarah Kane, first performed posthumously in 2000. Much like her disturbed mind at the time of writing this play — jostling in her room to make drafts at wee hours, which is also precisely why the play is titled so — the script is disjointed, non-linear and clustered, making it very difficult for anyone to understand it in the first go.The interpretations and responses that we have received so far have not been very pleasant, of course, with many even seeing it as an example of ‘theatre of cruelty’. Obviously, it isn’t an easy watch for the audience either, as there is a constant sense of distress and discomfort among all.