"Michel and Duncombe have... fully inhabited their new space with this production"—LA Stage Times
"Stunning and provocative production that leaves you asking questions as you leave"—CultureVulture.net
"An exciting production, beautifully mounted"—Stage Happenings
Sarah Kane: 4.48 Psychosis
Closed September 10, 2011
August 4—September 10, 2011
Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 8p
LA Weekly calls Psychosis 4.48 a "striking theatrical experience"
In rep with Molière's Sganarelle or The Imaginary Cuckold in the Track 16 Gallery space at the Bergamot Station Arts Complex in Santa Monica
What happens when a young woman’s brain splinters into fragments and becomes a battlefield at war with itself? Counting backwards by sevens, a so-called test of sanity, she tries desperately to recover a world that is slipping rapidly through her fingers. In the end, she claws desperately to free herself from the nightmare. Acclaimed British playwright Sarah Kane in her beautiful and haunting last work, takes us to the edge of the unknowable with painful clarity, wrestling with the aches that drive us to the brink of madness in our 21st century sickness.
Directed by Frédérique Michel
Production Design by Charles A. Duncombe
Cast: Justin Davanzo, Lena Kouyoumdjian, Cynthia Mance, Tim Orona, Kenneth Rudnicki, Ann Colby Stocking
4.48 Psychosis and Sganarelle will both be performed in the Track 16 Gallery space at the Bergamot Station Arts Complex in Santa Monica.
Fourth Weekend Q&A
Please stay with us after the show on Friday, August 26 for an informal discussion of 4.48 Psychosis with the show's cast and creators.
PLEASE NOTE: There will be no performance Thursday, September 8, 2011
by Paul Birchall, August 16, 2011
GO Playwright Sarah Kane's kaleidoscopic drama premiered shortly after her suicide in 2000. At the time, one British theater critic called the work a "70 minute suicide note" - and, of course, even with the best will in the world, it is almost impossible to separate the intense and ferociously angry text of the work from the tragic real world story surrounding it. This is particularly true when you consider that the lyrical writing overtly deals with issues of depression and mental illness from the point of view of the sufferer - it may be one of the best plays to depict suicidal depression from the inside out.
Set, as the program notes, "inside a deranged brain," the work consists of a series of fragmented exchanges that often take the form of inchoate expressions of rage twinned with frustrated awareness of a lack of control. A clearly unstable young woman (Cynthia Mance) sits center stage, bracketed by two figures in chairs behind her and another figure, a seemingly severed head in a bird cage -- all of whom mutter abrasive vituperations at the hapless girl. There is also a pair of other performers who portray the doctors attempting to treat her - even though they offer only the coldest comfort to the angst-ridden heroine -- offering utterances like "I know nothing of you, but I like you!"
Frederique Michel's harrowing and edgy production, replete with eerie sound effects and dialogue interspersed with characters suddenly lurching into rhythmic spasms and twitching, hauntingly captures the state of mind of someone with tunnelvision perception in which all thoughts, excuses, and opinions inevitably lead to one ultimate act self-negation. Designer Charles Duncombe's sterile hospital room-like set and the eerie, percussive sound effects suggest the heroine's matter-of-fact view of her own madness and feelings of emptiness. The production delivers a disturbing and striking theatrical experience. City Garage at Track 16 Gallery (Building C) at Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Blvd, Santa Monica; Thurs.-Fri., 8 p.m.; thru Sept. 9. (310) 319-9939. brownpapertickets.com/event/185421.
