‘It put me in a fever dream’: Philip Venables on turning Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis into a shocking opera

Key points

• Philip Venables first read and annotated Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis on an overnight flight from New York in January 2015, and those notes became the blueprint for his opera.
• The opera was written in six months in 2016 and premiered in May 2016, and it is being revived for its 10th anniversary at the Royal Opera House.
• Venables says Kane's text has shaped how he thinks about and makes his work, and he is preparing The Alonetimes, his first music theatre piece without director Ted Huffman, for a UK premiere on 19 October at the Schwarzman Centre in Oxford.

Composer Philip Venables has described how Sarah Kane's play 4.48 Psychosis became the basis of his opera, which is being revived for its 10th anniversary at the Royal Opera House. He wrote that he first read and annotated the text during an overnight flight from New York in January 2015, after attending Prototype, a festival of new opera.

Venables said those six hours were among the most creatively fertile of his life, and that his annotations became the blueprint for the opera. He returned home to a difficult year that included a protracted relationship breakup and the threat of bankruptcy and losing his house, and he was not composing for a time.

Writing the opera

In late summer 2015, Venables said he pulled himself together, dusted off his notes and made spreadsheets, counting the days available for each scene. The opera was written at breakneck speed in six months, in something of a trance, and he followed his blueprint almost without deviation, writing the most straightforward scenes first and out of order.

He said Kane's text kept revealing more ideas and music as he returned to it, and he recalled advice from fellow composer James Weeks: "You want people to come out afterwards and say 'that wasn't an opera'."

It put me in a fever dream

— Philip Venables

Rehearsals and reception

Venables said rehearsing was demanding. He delivered the score late, and the production required complex ensemble singing, recorded material and millisecond precision between light, sound and video. He thanked the cast and producer Sarah Crabtree for meeting the challenges.

By opening night in May 2016, he wrote, the team had not thought much about how the work might be received, and the overwhelming audience response felt like a release of tension. He said the success led to a close collaboration with director Ted Huffman, and that since 4.48 they have made three operas and smaller pieces.

Return and new work

Venables said Kane's text has forever shaped his thinking, and that he still asks the questions it provoked about character, performer, singing and speaking. He added that it saddens him that formally experimental work appears so rarely on British opera stages.

The opera has had other performances and productions in the US, France and Germany. Venables is also writing and directing The Alonetimes, his first music theatre piece without Huffman, a collaboration with Jennifer Walshe that has its UK premiere on 19 October at the Schwarzman Centre in Oxford.