Sweetscar 4.48 Pyschosis

Sweetscar’s 4.48 Psychosis is a disappointing collision of brilliant concept and remarkable script. Unfortunately, both are undermined in presentation: Kane’s self-eviscerating poetry is rendered inert by a measured intonation and Keith Macpherson’s mime veers closer to theatricality than authentic representation of torment. The long periods of darkness, the cell-like stage designed by Kirsty Mackay and the ominous dangling rope all set the perfect, bleak scene. Sadly, the production only sporadically captures the intrinsic horror of this theatrical suicide note.

Director Adrian Osmond admirably attempts to shift Kane’s paean to self-loathing into a broader commentary on mental illness. Using pre-recorded voices, he shares her monologues and arguments across multiple genders, ages and accents, suggesting the commonality of psychological distress. Although this doesn’t really do justice to Kane’s intentions – part of her illness was monomania and egotism – it might have been more effective if so many of those voices didn’t read the lines as if they were reciting poetry for a deaf Sunday school class.

The ferocity is tamed, the rhythms of her insanity flattened into a steady beat. Only when the voices are multi-tracked or distorted, usually when Kane gets religious, is there any recognition of the underlying fire. Macpherson, playing the lone victim, reels and rants and rolls and drools with abandon, sporadically capturing a real sense of isolation. The death at the end is a stage trick and strangely unmoving.

There are moments of brilliance: the sudden distorted screams, the recitations of medical experimentation, the opening as Macpherson flickers from the darkness and the multi-tracked choir, the fading from dark to light, Macpherson’s sudden freak out. If the soundscape was tightened – maybe using skilful actors rather than volunteers and using multiple speakers to capture the teeming insistence of the neurotic mind – the set and light design would contain a worthy performance. It remains a brilliant idea, only satisfactorily executed