Beautiful - Rated 
Forget the famous context of the author's suicide and read it for what it is - brilliant poetry and a truly unique account of one person's battle with manic depression, internally and externally. Astounding.
a saner life tomorrow - Rated 
I read the text three times this year and saw a german performance on stage. I think the text is difficult to perform because there is no „real" dialogue in the text. The play is like a poem to me. The more you read the text, the more you feel the rhythm of the words.
The play consist of a inner monologue about the feelings and experiences of Sarah Kane. This is intersected by a dialogue between her and a doctor. The central aspect of the play is the unanswered love to a person she will never meet. It causes the pain she describes in her monologue. Her medical treatment in hospital influences the drama. She wants to detach the body from the soul. In this moment she can only be by herself, especially when she cuts her arms. It gives her the energy to go on because she wants to live. In the end she haven't got the strength to carry on because her love is unrequited. The psychosis on 4.48 in the morning is the result of the lack of happiness in her life. The problems she shows us in the text are common in everyone lives but it is not so extreme in ours as in hers.
After forty pages you feel a void and a desired to cease the tension. But you can't help it.
Incredible - Rated
This is an amazing play. On one hand - Sarah Kane's own suicide note - on another, something much more than that. I experienced a performance of this before I read it - for those of you familiar with Artaudian techniques - this was full on.
My friends were in the production - but I couldn't recognise them. When I looked into their eyes they were blank.
This play touches something really deep in you - it's hard to describe unless you've experienced it.
If you get the chance to see this as a proper Artaudian performance (i.e. no barrier between audience and actor - other than health and safety regulations!) then I would definately recommend it - it's amazing.
Heartbreaking - Rated
Reading this play made me physically ache all over. It is powerful, shocking, moving, beautiful and heartbreakingly tragic. In the most raw and dismal manner it addresses clinical depression, hurling the audience or reader through an intense rollercoaster. I bought it after finding an extract from it as a monologue in an auditions book. The monologue was so striking that I was convinced the rest of the play would scarcely do it justice, and I am pleased to admit how wrong I was. It is not in anyones ability to speculate how autobiographical this play is, nor is it remotely appropriate. The play is a wonderful piece of modern literature. Sarah's heartbreaking and untimely death is an entirely separate tradegy.
The Brilliance of Sarah Kane - Rated
It is hard not to use words such as 'wonderful', 'fantastic', 'stunning' etc when describing Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis. Yet these words are all I can think of whilst trying to write this review. Sarah Kane is pure genius at work, a tragic woman lost to the manic world of depression. This, her final work, sums up her final days - a turbulent rollercoaster of emotions (generally anger and frustration). Although it is not written in a "standard" novel form or "standard" play form, its meaning is still strongly evident. Tragic, funny, depressing, upsetting, wonderful, fantastic, stunning. Goodbye Sarah Kane - you will be sorely missed...
|
