4.48 Psychosis (Methuen Modern Plays)

Product Information

The production starred Polish film actress Magdalena Cielecka and featured a number of other performers from TR Warszawa in supporting roles. There were a few who left the play in the beginning itself, because it was just too much to cope with it mentally. In the arts, we are so used to discourses on mental health being measured, subtle or expressed only in parts that any deviation seems out of the mould, ambitious or risky.

In fact, there have been instances in the past when audiences have requested to open the curtains while watching it. Its language varies between dialogues, confessions and contemplative poetic monologues reminiscent of schizophasia. played in front of an invited audience – family and friends, colleagues, and fellow playwrights, among them Harold Pinter and Joe Penhall.If Kane is not exactly part of the establishment – the thought would probably have amused and horrified her – she is now a canonical figure, celebrated in many countries worldwide. Psychosis was written throughout the autumn and winter of 1998-99 as Kane battled with one of her recurrent bouts of depression.

The other two stages — “realising that her depression is more serious than what it looks like” and “worried about figuring out how to get through it” — are essayed by actors Durga Venkatesan and Yeshaswini Channaiah respectively.Elsewhere, a single voice pulsates with anxiety, and another records sardonic clinical notes: “Lofepramine and Citalopram discontinued after patient got pissed off with side effects and lack of obvious improvement. All three actors set about learning the text in its entirety; every moment would be rehearsed, but in keeping with the script’s freeform feel, it was decided that some sections should be left to the moment – if one person started a speech, the lines would be theirs for that performance.