4.48 PSYCHOSIS | STAGE REVIEW
Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Thurs 30 Jan.
An intense and provocative re-imagining of Sarah Kane’s final play before her death, 4.48 Psychosis plays out as a haunting suicide note, the recurring themes and motifs presenting a harrowing depiction of the repetition and emptiness that engulfs sufferers of clinical depression.
Performed in the surroundings of Chapter’s Studio, this is the fourth production from Aberystwyth-based performers and educators Run Amok Theatre Company. Director Izzy Robey uses the original plays lack of specified characters, setting and stage direction to recreate this as an engaging, powerful one-man show.
This one man, Rhodri Brady, bristles with impotent anger and insanity as he charts the slow, harrowing descent into mental illness that leads to his final vow; “after 4.48, I shall not speak again.” The wide expanses of the studio are used effectively, with every manic stride suggesting a step further towards the abyss that lurks at the corner of his consciousness and threatens to overwhelm him.
As the play progresses, Brady’s tortuous inner conversation with medical professionals, friends and family as they fail to understand his condition paint a thrilling insight into the loneliness and despair that clings to this play like a suppressive fog, the lone character both relishing and repulsed by his starring role at the centre of his own insanity. Under Robey’s sensitive but strong direction this plays out as a stream of fractured consciousness, the sparse but effective lighting accentuates each wild mood shift as the protagonist muses on friendship, unrequited love and the inevitable failure of his existence.
Robey bravely attempts to use the challenging subject of mental health to explore contemporary issues, such as the modern obsession with social media; the initial blending of themes is chilling, and the isolation and solitude of the Internet resonates menacingly with the unnamed protagonists inner turmoil. Unfortunately this idea is apparently lost at the halfway theme, as religious and medical symbolism comes to the fore; Robey at times seems torn between loyalty to the original script and its themes and a desire to subjectively interpret Kane’s words as she pictures them in her mind.
A disturbing and wholly convincing insight into the mind of a patient in the grips of depression, Brady’s explosive performance and Robey’s intricate direction offer an engaging and evocative, if occasionally flawed, interpretation of Sarah Kane’s final, poignant suicide note.
Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Thu 30 & Fri 31 Jan. Tickets: £6-£8 Info: 029 2030 4400/ www.chapter.org
words JAME AYLES photos KEITH MORRIS
