Okay, there is no Play of the Week Award, but if there were, the King’s production of 4.48 Psychosis would win it. It’s a brilliant piece of playwriting by Sarah Kane, an enfant terrible of the British theatre scene before she hung herself in 1999.
By all accounts, it is a challenging play to stage as it lacks explicit characters and stage direction, but the fertile mind of director Simon Bloom produces a tightly choreographed show that expresses as much through movement as through words. The play is staged in the round with the simplest of sets—a hospital gurney on a concrete floor—but with some truly inspired lighting design by Jeremy Powell. As for the cast (Ella Bedard, Jennalee Dejardin, Lewis Wynn-Jones), let’s just say they are so breath-takingly talented that you’ll leave hoping they’re considering acting as a career rather than as an entertaining elective.
4.48 Psychosis will be playing from November 18 to 21, at 8:00 p.m. in the Pit at the University of King’s College. Tickets are $5 for students, $7 for adults. For reservations call 902-4220-6011 ext. 102.
This article appears in Nov 19-25, 2009.