4:48 Psychosis

Director Christian Benedetti invites us to question the core of Sarah Kane’s 4:48 Psychosis, recontextualizing the protagonist’s suffering, vivacity and the ‘rhythms of madness’ she faces. Poised and sincere, the production explores a different side of human tragedy, challenging – in the director’s view – a type of theatre that has corroded with falsity.

Benedetti’s interpretation of the text, with a single female actor onstage, speaking directly to the audience, focuses on the rhythms and cycles of Kane’s writing to access different states of the character’s emotions. The direction draws attention to the resonance of the writing, questioning the nature of humanity now. As 4:48 progresses from time of desperation to time of sanity, the play becomes a symbol of human malady.

Anamaria Marinca embodies both despair and wit, speaking from only one point onstage throughout the performance, with two open doors behind her. Her eyes are warm, and her rare smile offers a pleasant shift in texture. The silences, stillness and sincerity are the most powerful elements in this production. It’s an ongoing discussion between Anamaria and the audience, not so much an appeal but a dialogue. Under the austere lighting, she sometimes appears like an insect, vulnerable, angry; and it is in her posture and her mode of address that we access thoughts, feelings, states of being, not a whole person but the myriad facets that make up that person.

For those who have seen Anamaria Marinca in the film 4 Luni, 3 Săptămâni, 2 Zile (4 Months,3 Weeks and 2 Days) , there is a strong parallel between her character in the film and the way she communicates with the audience in 4:48: dangerous and vulnerable at the same time, confrontational, trying to reach a state of normality.

This production of 4:48 Psychosis toys with human nature and theatrical convention. While Anamaria Marinca seems to face her own dark side – natural and, at times, impulsive – Benedetti asks us to rethink Kane’s writing once more. So that maybe now, in light of our times, we can understand a different side of her. In the director’s own words, ‘It’s an attempt at an answer, the temptation of a winking eye’.