Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis

<p>Everything passes/Everything perishes/Everything palls – <em>4.48 Psychosis</em></p><p>How on earth do you award aesthetic points to a 75-minute suicide note? The question comes from a review of <em>4.48 Psychosis</em>’ inaugural production the year after Sarah Kane took her own life but this book explores the ways in which it misses the point. Kane’s final play is much more than a bizarre farewell to mortality. It’s a work best understood by approaching it first and foremost as theatre – as a singular component in a theatrical assemblage of bodies voices light and energy. The play finds an unexpectedly close fit in the established traditions of modern drama and the practices of postdramatic theatre.</p><p>Glenn D’Cruz explores this theatrical angle through a number of exemplary professional and student productions with a focus on the staging of the play by the Belarus Free Theatre (2005) and Melbourne’s Red Stitch Theatre (2007). </p>