4.48 Psychosis
herself she finds again, at 4.48
hours lost, minutes numbed, seconds drip dripping
a mounting sense of medication
(but without the aggressive advertising)
weapons of mass prescription
herself she loses again (i don’t know what day it is)
tracing a trail of jagged fragments
corridors of wards of corridors
slamming into her filament of sanity
An audacious theatrical exploration into the darkest recesses of the mind, 4.48 Psychosis is the final and most controversial play by iconic British playwright, Sarah Kane who was hailed as “the most widely produced and fervently admired” of today’s British playwrights (The Guardian).
Directed by Christina Sergeant, Kuo Jing Hong’s solo performance will be a sensory exploration of the text. 4.48 redefines the prism of psychosis in an evocative interplay between language, sound and body in this Singapore premiere.
Date: 16 – 26 July 2009
Venue: Drama Centre Black Box
Director: Christina Sergeant
Playwright: Christina Sergeant
Set Designer: Wong Chee Wai
Lighting designer: Lee Bee Bee
Sound Designer: Matt Grey
Cast: Kuo Jing Hong
Still, in the context of the iconoclastic playwright’s bouts of depression and tragic suicide at the age of 28, the raw brutality and dark honesty of the uncompromising Psychosis is at times affecting (“I am angry because I understand not because I don’t”) and it is admirable that a Chinese theatre company has decided to tackle this contemporary British classic head-on and endeavour to bring it to its core audience (through the use of Mandarin surtitles).