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4:48 Psychosis Brink Productions & Budgie Lung Theatre Queens Theatre until Sun 12 March The audience first sees four actors crouched together on a large square of sandy loam, shivering beneath omnipresent misting rain. They look like lost souls... '4:48 Psychosis' is a remounted production of Sarah Kane's play which deals with the torment of depression, the depths of despair into which an individual can slide, the medical maladministration of the disease, and the nature of psychotic episodes. Four actors pay four aspects of the same woman, questioning and probing her psyche, challenging her intellect, baiting her for her life. Lizzy Falkland is the remaining cast member from the original production, and she is simply outstanding. Joined by Elena Carapetis, Kate Box and Roman Vaculik, it is the latter actor who really powers this production along with his taut and explosively violent movement. As they investigate their minds the actors scrabble - sometimes literally - in their 'sandpit'. It's a metaphor for something, I guess. With the action tightened for a Fringe performance (it runs under an hour), Director Geordi Brookman has made Kane's text more accessible to the audience; dense slabs have been judiciously pruned, and there's no time to become bored. This is not comfortable theatre, for the spectre of Kane's own suicide hangs over the proceedings most heavily. Yet neither is it simply a performance which documents an inexorable descent - or a blueprint. For one thing, the writing is too vivid, too humorous, too good. For another, in the hands of Brink and its actors the performance is simply too vibrant and enthusiastic, too full of possibilities. A must see.  |
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