This is the second production of a Sarah Kane play in London within just a few months and as we are freshly enthralled by her genius, the walkouts become almost like goals you want to cheer. Cleansed at the Almeida was a punishing, astonishing experience reminding (fleeing) audiences exactly why Kane has a fearsome reputation for extreme theatre (the list of trigger warnings in the foyer was Bayeux Tapestry sized). Now 4.48 Psychosis, her final play written shortly before her suicide in 1999 aged just 28, has opened in the Linbury Theatre at Royal Opera and takes a less violent but similarly traumatic path.
Given the experimental, elusive approach Kane took for 4.48 Psychosis – no defined characters or stage directions, long passages of self-coruscating poetry-prose, lists of medications, snatches of doctor-patient dialogue – it’s wide open for interpretation, and indeed feels almost uniquely apt for an opera. Composer Philip Venables and director Ted Huffman originally developed it for Royal Opera but it originally debuted at the Lyric Hammersmith in 2016 while the Linbury was closed for renovation. Ten years on it is at last showing in Covent Garden and is a devastating triumph. It touches on beauty and is always poetic, but it is terribly upsetting – the walkouts come as no surprise. But this is no mere shock parade, it puts a spotlight on terrible truths.
