“4:48. Psychosis” is a Sarah Kane text that induces a state of trance by delving deep into the stream of psychic existence beyond good and evil, where defeat is possible because truths are being configured and destroyed to the limit of supportability. The performance of the Polish theatre TR Warszawa has succeeded in recreating an impressive image of the kind of pain that forbids human beings closeness to the others, comfort given by common sense and ability to live according to half-truths. Written just before she committed suicide, the last drama text of the controversial playwright who has changed the theatre of the 90’s is bringing forward the issue of suicide as a way of escaping the social and psychiatric context of a mental sanatorium, an institution that denies the insolvability of some human problems .
The performance begins with the deep crisis of a character trapped in a mentally disturbing situation— feeling fury and impotence at the idea that life is simply not worth living—, continues with the agitation caused by the inner rejection of the only suggested solution – the medication—, and ends in a troubling and slow way, in silence. “I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I can’t fuck, I can’t make love” represent the abnormality of a woman who is silenced through the lack of empathic attitudes, perpetuated in the system as being the solution, through the weakening of the power to sustain her existence marked by psychic pain and through the lack of the ideal love that could pull her out of her living hell.
A long table and a few chairs in the green sterile desert of a mental institution represent the place where love is being longed for, being touched is a desperate craving and the desire to continue living is menaced; the place where closeness to other people is not easing the pain, but turning into torture; the place where the doctors reduce pain to a symptom making it seem less disturbing. Windows of lights cut into the space help introduce the idea of the slow disconnection from the others, followed by the loss of curiosity regarding the outside world. What is fascinating in this performance is that is portrays the disquieting image of grief, but its motive is never revealed. The performance conveys through the use of lighting a sense of distortion and fragmentation of the objective reality. The extremely intense and subjective reality that replaces the objective one is made by the use of strange visual inserts of a special quality, that reflect a painful lack of resonance with the others. The relations with the other characters are full of ambiguity, terror and hope being the extreme attitudes. After the real and the unreal start to mix, their mixture is rhythmically punctuated by subjective depictions of loneliness and pain. The performance succeeds in capturing the special kind of humor in the play, one that comes from lack of resignation with the order of the “real” world.
The theatre director’s option to split the lines between the main character, a superficial lover and a complacent doctor becomes a little frustrating in the second part of the performance, where the theatrical space onstage is transformed into the doctors consulting room and the woman appears to surrender her struggle for normality, resigning herself to finally taking medication. This is a moment in which the director’s approach to the theme changes, as he chooses to distance himself from the insanity and to accept the unemotional approach of mental health practitioners .While the doctors are labeling her with various diagnoses and treatments, the whole subjective world is invaded by endless series of numbers suggesting a hell from which there is no way out. The performance becomes more narrative, the scenes between the woman and the doctors alternate with scenes depicting the agony. The woman becomes more and more gloomy, the monologues become darker because of the tiredness, death takes on the image of an old naked woman, the existential despair manifests itself in a bloody climax, to the soundtrack of “When I’ll Fall In Love”. The lack of hope becomes a driving force and the moment of suicide has something in it that is troubling, beautiful and terrible. The performance ends not in bursting applause but with a revered silence that leaves us thinking about the clichés that inform our attitudes and make us desert our responsibility to make this world a place for celebrating love.
The performance begins with the deep crisis of a character trapped in a mentally disturbing situation— feeling fury and impotence at the idea that life is simply not worth living—, continues with the agitation caused by the inner rejection of the only suggested solution – the medication—, and ends in a troubling and slow way, in silence. “I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I can’t fuck, I can’t make love” represent the abnormality of a woman who is silenced through the lack of empathic attitudes, perpetuated in the system as being the solution, through the weakening of the power to sustain her existence marked by psychic pain and through the lack of the ideal love that could pull her out of her living hell.
A long table and a few chairs in the green sterile desert of a mental institution represent the place where love is being longed for, being touched is a desperate craving and the desire to continue living is menaced; the place where closeness to other people is not easing the pain, but turning into torture; the place where the doctors reduce pain to a symptom making it seem less disturbing. Windows of lights cut into the space help introduce the idea of the slow disconnection from the others, followed by the loss of curiosity regarding the outside world. What is fascinating in this performance is that is portrays the disquieting image of grief, but its motive is never revealed. The performance conveys through the use of lighting a sense of distortion and fragmentation of the objective reality. The extremely intense and subjective reality that replaces the objective one is made by the use of strange visual inserts of a special quality, that reflect a painful lack of resonance with the others. The relations with the other characters are full of ambiguity, terror and hope being the extreme attitudes. After the real and the unreal start to mix, their mixture is rhythmically punctuated by subjective depictions of loneliness and pain. The performance succeeds in capturing the special kind of humor in the play, one that comes from lack of resignation with the order of the “real” world.
The theatre director’s option to split the lines between the main character, a superficial lover and a complacent doctor becomes a little frustrating in the second part of the performance, where the theatrical space onstage is transformed into the doctors consulting room and the woman appears to surrender her struggle for normality, resigning herself to finally taking medication. This is a moment in which the director’s approach to the theme changes, as he chooses to distance himself from the insanity and to accept the unemotional approach of mental health practitioners .While the doctors are labeling her with various diagnoses and treatments, the whole subjective world is invaded by endless series of numbers suggesting a hell from which there is no way out. The performance becomes more narrative, the scenes between the woman and the doctors alternate with scenes depicting the agony. The woman becomes more and more gloomy, the monologues become darker because of the tiredness, death takes on the image of an old naked woman, the existential despair manifests itself in a bloody climax, to the soundtrack of “When I’ll Fall In Love”. The lack of hope becomes a driving force and the moment of suicide has something in it that is troubling, beautiful and terrible. The performance ends not in bursting applause but with a revered silence that leaves us thinking about the clichés that inform our attitudes and make us desert our responsibility to make this world a place for celebrating love.
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