Review: 4:48 PSYCHOSIS, Network Theatre

"There's no point in anything because I am going to die" Sarah Kane says 4:48 Psychosis. Posthumously performed in 2000, the play is usually regarded as one of the greatest British playwright's suicide note. A distressed mind, Kane took her own life at the age of 28 in 1999 and left an immense legacy behind. It has also become somewhat iconic (which feels odd and wrong to say given its matter) since its debut at the Royal Court and much has been said about it.

Starting from the structure down to the treatment of its core subject, the piece is unconventional. Characters, settings, stage directions are all strangers to Kane's farewell to theatre (and the world), with only a few lengths of silence specified within. This, of course, has massive repercussions on the staging of it, essentially giving carte blanche to their directors.

The show introduces clinical depression in its most intricate details, introducing Kane's specific experience of it rather than talking a grand game about it. With no real narrative to follow, the discussions around suicide, medication, medical dismissiveness, and self-harm are circular and spiraling. In short, it's not an easy one. Neither for the creative team to make nor for the audience to see.

Director Lauren Waterman is now presenting her own take after being introduced to it some 17 years ago, according to the programme notes. She opts for 12 actors, three of which feature only as voice-overs. Seven nameless people surround two main ones (Naomi Bowman as P, a version of Kane perhaps, and Tyler Woods as the Doctor who treats her) The result scratches the itch, but doesn't heal the wound.

The anonymity and darkness of the Network stage works perfectly with the specs of the script (or lack thereof), but somehow this isn't exploited to its fullest. Brief videos are projected onto a rectangle on the back wall at times, but these are arbitrary and very general images that don't really add much to the production as a whole.

Waterman plays well with tension and stillness, crowding the space before removing all performers bar one. The turbulence of Kane's lists of symptoms, medications, and side effects find troubled peace in silence, with the director amplifying and extending it to positively uncomfortable sizes.

Acting-wise, the show felt slightly overdone on its first night, with Bowman delivering an unhinged but exaggerated performance. Not all actors follow in her footsteps, with Woods' offering a subdued yet pristine Doctor that eventually steals the scene. All in all, Waterman's take on the text is solid, but it doesn't offer anything exceptional or innovative.

The empty, silent blackouts end up being insignificant and don't add meaning nor aid the pace. Other touches are curious and compelling, like two characters dressed similarly throw imaginary balls at each other while yelling symptoms and other manifestations of depression, or a child and parent talking in voiceover during P's meetings with her Doctor among others.

4:48 is difficult to pin down as a piece. This version does its job in painting Kane's account of her struggles, but it doesn't feel personal. There are some interesting elements to it, but it doesn't soar above any other average play about mental health.

4:48 PSychosis runs at Network Theatre until 16 October.

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