4.48 Psychosis review – a dazzling, harrowing opera worthy of Sarah Kane’s furious writing
Linbury theatre, London Six fearless singers and the Chroma Ensemble, conducted with arresting immediacy by Naomi Woo, rise to the challenge of the brutal musical onslaughts and anarchic orchestrations of Philip Venables’ raw, imaginative score Sarah Kane revolutionised British theatre with five provocative plays written between 1995 and 1999. Her final work, 4.48 Psychosis, was her most personal, confronting the…
Key points
- Philip Venables' opera adaptation of Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis is revived at the Linbury theatre in London.
- Six singers and the Chroma Ensemble perform Venables' score, conducted by Naomi Woo.
- The review says the music's control sometimes tempers the play's potential to shock.
The Royal Opera and Guildhall School of Music and Drama's opera adaptation of Sarah Kane's final play, 4.48 Psychosis, is being revived at the Linbury theatre in London. Philip Venables composed the work, which debuted in 2016 and sets almost all of Kane's original text. Ted Huffman's production, now 10 years old, returns with a subtly revised ending.
Kane wrote five plays between 1995 and 1999. 4.48 Psychosis, her last, was first performed in 2000, after she died by suicide in 1999. The opera's libretto moves between poetic abstraction and sharp exchanges between a patient and a psychologist, with six female singers exploring depression, isolation and decisions about medication.
Music and staging
The Chroma Ensemble, a 14-piece chamber orchestra, plays above the stage, conducted by Naomi Woo. The review describes the orchestrations, which include three saxophones, piano synthesiser and accordion, as anarchic and violent at times, contrasting with quieter passages and distant waiting-room muzak. A spoken voice over a loudspeaker anchors the narrative.
Hannah Clark's white box set and DM Wood's stark lighting frame the action. The six singers wear identical costumes, which the review says suggests they may be fragments of one fractured personality. Jacquelyn Stucker is singled out for a searingly honest performance as the troubled protagonist.
a dazzling, harrowing opera worthy of Sarah Kane's furious writing
— The Guardian
What the review says
The review calls the production dazzling and harrowing, praising the singers for their accuracy and the conductor for her immediacy. It says Venables' score uses overlapping vocal lines to capture Kane's non-linear writing and repetition in ways traditional theatre cannot easily match.
The review also finds that the tightly controlled six-part chorus sometimes fixes the emotional temperature, limiting the freedom of interpretation in Kane's text. It says the opera remains extremely harrowing but tempers the play's potential to shock.
