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A new book on Sarah Kane and a launch event. Two short podcasts on Kane.
Sarah Kane’s Theatre of Psychic Life - Launch event There is a launch event for the book on 25 May
2023 "join us for the launch of Leah Sidi's new book Sarah Kane's Theatre
of Psychic Life: Theatre, Thought and Mental Suffering, followed by a
drinks reception. This is a hybrid event, supported by the UCL Health
Humanities Centre". More details are here.
Sarah Kane’s Theatre of Psychic Life Sarah Kane’s Theatre of Psychic Life: Theatre, Thought and Mental Suffering by Leah Sidi was published on 6 Apr 2023, published by Bloomsbury. More details when available.
Persian edition of 4.48 Psychosis
The seventh edition of the Persian translation of 4.48 Psychosis has been published by Bidgol in Tehran. The translator is Erfan Khallaqi. The Bidgol website is here.
Podcasts on Sarah Kane
Two short but good podcasts on Sarah Kane's work. They can be downloaded here.
Montrash / 4.48 Psychosis in Bangla
Theatre troupe Spardha: Independent Theatre Collective present Montrash, a translation into Bangla of 4.48 Psychosis. It is at the Nilima Ibrahim Auditorium of Bangladesh Mahila Samity in Dhaka from 5- 13 Jan 2023. The director is Syed Jamil Ahmed and the translation is by Shahman Moishan and Sharif Siraj. The information is from New Age Entertainment, click here.
4.48 Psychosis in Chicago, USA
Theatre troupe Spardha: Independent Theatre Collective present Montrash, a translation into Bangla of 4.48 Psychosis. It is at the Nilima Ibrahim Auditorium of Bangladesh Mahila Samity in Dhaka from 5- 13 Jan 2023. The director is Syed Jamil Ahmed and the translation is by Shahman Moishan and Sharif Siraj. 4.48 Psychosis in Bangalore, India
Bangalore Little Theatre present 4.48 Psychosis from 13-29 Nov 2022. The performance is in English. "An intensely personal play, written months before the controversial young playwright took her own life, the ominous title refers to the early morning moment when the afflicted mind is said to assume clarity. Rather than claiming that it tries to cover depression as a whole, it might be fairer on the text to say that it is a very subjective presentation of depression, giving the audience an insight into one particular case (or perhaps providing specifics on several individual cases). Contemplation and discussion of suicide are prominent and while there is no strict narrative or timeline, certain issues and events are clearly dealt with: deciding whether to take medication to treat depression, the desires of the depressed mind, the effects and effectiveness of medication, self-harm, suicide and the possible causes of depression. Other themes that run throughout the script, in addition to depression, are those of isolation, dependency, relationships, and love, but they become aggressive, then powerless". The director is Shrivines Beesetty. More details are on the Bangalore Little Theatre website here. Phaedra's Love in Pembroke, UK
The Pembroke Players present Phaedra's Love from 25-29 Oct 2022. The players are the resident Drama Company of The New Cellars, Pembroke College, Cambridge. More details are on the Pembroke Players website here. 4.48 Psychosis in Ohio, USA
University of Findlay's theatre present 4.48 Psychosis from 22-25 Sept 2022. It is on at the Powell-Grimm Theatre, Egner Center for the Performing Arts, UF Campus. "English playwright Sarah Kane wrote 4.48 Psychosis while in the depths of one of her recurring bouts of clinical depression that led to her death by suicide. Experimental in its structure, the play has no explicitly named characters or stage directions, resembling a series of poems and journal entries. It is a deeply personal and affecting portrayal of one person’s experience with mental illness and also an exploration of the universal human need for understanding and connection". More details are on the UF website here. Cleansed in Australia
Cleansed is on at the Old Fitz Theatre, Woolloomooloo on 9- 25 June 2022. The director is Dino Dimitriadis and the performers are Danny Ball, Stephen Madsen, Tommy Misa, Jack Richardson, Charles Purcell , Fetu Taku and Mây Tran. "Somewhere, someplace. Six abandoned souls try to save themselves through love. But an ominous observer puts their declarations to the ultimate test. Director, Dino Dimitriadis (Angels in America, Metamorphoses, Doubt), and their team, will set the Old Fitz alight with Sarah Kane's iconic masterpiece. Uncompromising and visionary, a rarely-staged and savage portrait of the human heart". "From our point of view, [Cleansed] is not about coming along for a horror show – it’s about experiencing the breadth of the experience of what it is to be human,” Dimitriadis says. “I want the audience to know that we’re trying to create a meaningful experience for them. We’re not shying from its extremity, but I want the audience to see beyond that extremity and see Cleansed for what it is: a play about our need for love and connection”(Elissa Blake, 6 Jun 2022, The Guardian, click here). More details are on the Red Line productions website click here. Crave in Cambridge, UK
Crave is on at the Corpus Playroom, ADC Theatre, Cambridge on 8- 12 Mar 2022. '...it’s such a relief to have love again and to
lie in bed and be held and touched and kissed and adored and your
heart...' More details are on the ADC Website click here. "[Director] Ward’s willingness to allow the cast
to play with their own interpretations of the text means that this
production of Crave feels fresh and original... The cast in general more
than live up to the challenges posed by the material. The difficult themes
present in the script ask for a lot of sensitivity from the actors, not
least from India Lewis, who carries off her emotionally intense role with
a maturity that hits hard as we race towards the production’s conclusion. Phaedra Eros in Greece
Phaedra's Love (Phaedra Eros) is on at the Spendoni Theatre in Athens on 29-30 Dec 2021. "A bold and provocative revision of the myth through Phaedra's persistent and destructive passion for her adopted son Hippolytus. The work reveals the violent nature of love through the dysfunction of a sexually corrupt royal family in a society whose religion is the worship of celebrities". The actors are Parthenopi Bouzouri, Jeo Pakitsas, Tsimaras Tzanatos and Natasha Exintaveloni. The translation is by Dionysis Kapsalis and Direction - Artistic View Angela Bruscu. More details are on the Spendoni Theatre website (in Greek) here.
Cleansed in Belgium
A student production of Cleansed at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Antwerpen. "Dahlia Pessemiers Benamar en Oscar Van Rompay werken samen met de studenten Acteren bachelor 2 en 3 aan twee aparte voorstellingen. De voorstellingen worden elk vier keer gespeeld". It is on from 20-23 Dec 2021. More details are here.
4.48 Psychosis in Houston, USA
Catastrophic Theatre present 4.48 Psychosis from 19 Nov- 12 Dec 2021. “They will love me for that which destroys me.” The Catastrophic Theatre returns with the playwright whose body of work prompted the terms “an ethics of catastrophe” and “a theatre of extremes.” More details see the Catastrophic Theatre website click here. Cleansed in Luxerbourg
Cleansed at de Gudde Wellen Culture Club. The actors are Danny Boland, Whitney Fortmueller and Jacqueline Milne and the director is Max Jacobym. It is on from 19- 27 Nov 2021. More details are here.
Crave in Tasmania, Australia
“In a damaged world, four characters search for the light. Angry, funny,
defiant, kind and cruel, Crave is a deeply personal meditation on the
meaning of love. Pulsing with loss and longing, its resonance will
be doubly powerful as we begin to reconnect our lives after the loneliness
and seclusion inflicted by a global pandemic”.
The production is co-directed by Ellen Roe and Andy Aisbett and the cast
are Noah Casey, Gabi Vavoulas, Emma Skalicky and Rosie Cann. It is on from 12- 20 Nov 2021 at MAC (Moonah Arts Centre) in Tasmania, Australia. More details are on the MAC website here.
Blasted in Canada
Post Productions present Blasted at The Shadowbox Theatre, Windsor, Canada. The dates are 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15 & 16, Oct 2021. The cast are Michael K. Potter (Ian) who also directs, Julia Pastorius (Cate) and Nikolas Prsa (The Soldier). "this brilliant, intense, brutally beautiful, and subtle play - one of the most controversial and influential scripts of the 20th century - for Windsor-Essex audiences. In BLASTED, Ian, a middle-aged journalist, arranges a rendezvous in an upscale Leeds hotel room with Cate, a young woman with whom Ian hopes to rekindle a relationship that ended several years before. Outside their room, war is coming with an unseen and unspecified enemy. Unseen, that is, until a soldier arrives and the hotel room, and out assumptions about what's going on, are blown to pieces". More details are in the Post Productions website click here.
4.48 Psychosis in Wales
"After a sell-out run in 2018, Deafinitely Theatre's extraordinary production of Sarah Kane’s masterpiece comes to Wales. The early hours of the morning. You’re alone, with only your thoughts. How did you get here? And how do you get out? Award-winning director Paula Garfield brings Deafinitely Theatre’s celebrated bilingual approach [British Sign Language and spoken English] to Sarah Kane’s lyrical and haunting final play about mental health, which was nominated for the 2018 Broadway World UK Award for Best Direction of a New Production of a Play and the 2018 Off West End Theatre Award for Best Set Designer (Paul Burgess)" It is on at the Wales Millennium Centre - Canolfan Mileniwm Cymru, Cardiff on 20- 23 Nov 2021. More details are on the Wales Millennium Centre here (I had to search on 4.48 to find it, it is not yet under the "whats on" section). This performance is highly recommended. Crave online
The Chichester Festival Theatre will be streaming on-demand the online Crave. Performed by Erin Doherty, Alfred Enoch, Wendy Kweh and Jonathan Slinger, this unique production will feature a sensory sound and videoscape created by director Tinuke Craig, designer Alex Lowde, lighting designer Joshua Pharo, film designer Ravi Deepres and composer Anna Clock; with movement by Jenny Ogilvie. "In a damaged world, four characters search for the light. This heart-rending, funny, kind and cruel meditation on the meaning of love resonated with audiences looking to reconnect after the loneliness and seclusion inflicted by a global pandemic.". Opening night id 18 May 2021 at 7.30pm (UK time), on demand from 19- 29 May 2021. The website is here. This production is highly recommended.
4.48 Psychosis Belgium
4.48 Psychosis is presented as part of the OPAC Festival in Brussels on 12 Oct 2021. "Le collectif 4.48 est de retour avec une unique date à Bruxelles dans le cadre du festival étudiant du cercle OPAC". I don't have any more details, the website is here.
Cleansed in Sydney, Australia
Apocalypse in association with Red Line present Cleansed in the Old Fitz
Theatre, Sydney, Australia. "In an institution designed to rid society of its 'undesirables', a group of inmates try to save themselves through love. Director Dino Dimitriadis (Angels in America, Metamorphoses) reimagines the intimate, harrowing and uncomfortably beautiful world of Sarah Kane's most brutal work." The producer is Jennifer Rani. It is on from 17 Jul- 7 Aug 2021. For more details click here.
4.48 Psychosis in Bangladesh
Spardha: Independent Theatre Collective present a Bangla translation of
4.48 Psychosis, title Montrash, at the Nilima Ibrahim Auditorium of
Bangladesh Mahila Samity from 18- 31 Dec 2020.
Crave live online
Chichester Theatre are streaming live performance of Crave from 31 Oct- 7
Nov 2020. The prductoon is highly recommended.
4.48 Psychosis opera on BBC Radio
BBC Radio are broadcasting Philip Venables adaptation of 4.48 Psychosis. It in on 30 June 2018. The opera is highly recommended. Click on the link for more details. Two versions of 4.48 Psychosis in The Netherlands and Belgium
NTGent presents 4.48 Psychosis in The Netherlands and Gent. The dates are:
There will be two different but linked performces
of the play performed the one after the
other. "Lien Wildemeersch en Benjamin Cools gingen elk
afzonderlijk de confrontatie aan met wat volgens regisseur Jan Steen een
van de krachtigste toneelteksten van de laatste vijftien jaar is. Ze
maakten er hele verschillende versies van. Het publiek krijgt ze allebei
te zien. Samen vormen ze één geheel: ze zijn met elkaar verbonden en
klinken door in elkaar. De voorstelling wordt in het Engels gespeeld, in
de originele versie. Click on the image for more details.
4.48 Psychosis in New York, USA
The Flamboyan Theater presents 4.48 Psychosis from 21- 24 Sept 2017. "A
mesmerizing play that follows the journey
of a woman who struggles with severe depression and psychosis. It is a
poetic outpouring from a region of the mind that most of us hope never to
visit but from which many people can not escape. This particular
interpretation is guided by our urge to understand Sarah Kane's meaning in
the words: "Remember the light and believe the light" within the play. Click on the image for more details. Thanks to Nino for the information.
Blasted in Victoria, Australia
The Malthouse Company presents Blasted from 24 Aug -16 Sept 2017. "A gin-swigging journalist
and his young lover check into an anonymous hotel room. When a soldier and
a war zone explode through the bathroom window, things become barbaric.
This was the debut script of in-your-face playwright prodigy Sarah Kane.
Her prescient dissection of our response to violence was heralded as
‘depraved’ by some, ‘tender’ by others. So ignited the polarising
firestorm of Kane’s blazing career." Click on the image for more details.
4.48 Psychosis in Sydney, Australia
Workhorse Theatre Company present 4.48 Psychosis at the Old Fitz Theatre in Sydney from 16 Aug -9 Sept 2017. The actors are Lucy Heffernan, Ella Prince and Zoe Trilsbach-Harrison. The director is Anthony Skuse, set and costume design is by Jeremy Allen, lighting design is by Alexander Berlage, composition and live musician is Benjamin Freeman and stage management is by Genevieve Muratore. "Hailed as the young playwright of her generation Sarah Kane lays her soul bare as she disintegrates before you and sheds light on the darkness and struggle of mental illness. The Guardian said of Sarah "Sarah Kane wrote simply and starkly about the world she saw around her... a mature and vividly theatrical response to the pain of living” In her final note to her agent regarding 4:48 Psychosis Sarah Kane wrote "do with it what you will, just remember — writing it killed me". Containing no characters, stage directions or specified setting 4:48 is as unique as it is harrowing. Poetic, angry, full of love and frustration and darkly humorous this extraordinary work explores parts of the mind very few of us ever experience but from which some can never escape.". Click on the image for more details.
Cleansed in Sydney, Australia
Pact Theatre present Cleansed at Montague Basement, Sydney from 19- 23 Sept 2017. It is directed and designed by Saro Lusty-Cavallari, produced by Imogen Gardam, dramaturg Michaela Savina, artwork Hannah Cox. The actors are Sam Brewer, Lucy Burke, Alex Chalwell, Kurt Pimblett, Jem Rowe, Michaela Savina and Annie Stafford. "In a nameless institution six disparate outcasts have their lives and bodies observed, dissected and obliterated by the eyes of the everpresent Tinker - perhaps a friend, perhaps a doctor, perhaps neither. For the first time in over a decade the most shocking and controversial play by one of the world’s most shocking and controversial playwrights comes to the Sydney stage. Sarah Kane’s Cleansed pushes every element of theatre to its excruciating limits and Montague Basement’s daring multimedia production is a unique opportunity not to be missed.". Click on the image for more details.
4.48 Psychosis in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
The Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre present 4.48 Psychosis from 2- 12 Nov 2017. The actors are Phraveen Arikiah, Alex Chua, Claudia Low and Andrew Wood. The director is Kelvin Wong. "Delve into the trippy and electrifying subconscious of an individual dealing with clinical depression. Through a support system of friends, appointments with the psychiatrist and an endless flow of antidepressants, will he come out of his rut and find light once more?". Click on the image for more details. About Kane: the Playwright and the Work Graham Saunders offers an important study of Sarah Kane. His survey includes a concise biography, in-depth analysis of Sarah Kane’s work, and interviews with Kane and those who helped to put her work on stage. Click on the image for more details.
Sarah Kane in Context Sarah Kane in Context edited by Laurens de Vos and Graham Saunders is available, published by Manchester University Press. But it is expensive (Amazon list it as £55).
Guide to Blasted Sarah Kane's Blasted. An in-depth study of the play by Helen Iball.
Skin on-line
You can watch Skin on-line (this is a new improved link). The script
is by Sarah Kane, Vincent O´Connell directed and Ewan Bremner and Rose Marcie
star. 4.48 Psychosis in London
The Angel Theatre Company present 4.48 Psychosis at Barons Court Theatre in London from 4-8 July 2017. The actors are Lara Bell, Anna Bonnett, Izzy Daws, Sarah Kerr, Shanna Logan, Ciara Power and Christie Sylvester. The company are donating proceeds from programme sales to Papyrus, an organisation dedicated to saving lives by helping to prevent suicide in young people. Click on the image for more details. Edinburgh Festival Cleansed
Theatre group Fear No Colours present Cleansed at C Nova from
5- 31 Aug 2015.
Fear No Colours also present Phaedra’s Love at the same
venue from 5- 31 Aug 2015. Details are here.
Cruelty and Desire
A new book Cruelty and Desire in the Modern Theater: Artonin Artaud, Sarah Kane, and Samuel Beckett by Laurens De Vos. "Departing from a refreshing look at the ideas of Artonin Artaud, this book provides a thorough analysis of how both Sarah Kane and Samuel Beckett are indebted to his legacy. In juxtaposing these playwrights, De Vos minutely points out how both in their own way struggle to coming to terms with Artaud." It is expensive though, $75.00.
To buy from Amazon.co.uk click here
4.48 Psychosis adaptation online
Cruelty and Desire
A new book Cruelty and Desire in the Modern Theater: Artonin Artaud, Sarah Kane, and Samuel Beckett by Laurens De Vos. "Departing from a refreshing look at the ideas of Artonin Artaud, this book provides a thorough analysis of how both Sarah Kane and Samuel Beckett are indebted to his legacy. In juxtaposing these playwrights, De Vos minutely points out how both in their own way struggle to coming to terms with Artaud." It is expensive though, $75.00.
To buy from Amazon.co.uk click here Crave in Los Angeles USA Directors Lab West in Los Angeles present Crave from 23- 30 May 2015. The adaptor/director is Sarah M. Chichester, it is produced by Black Note Theatre Company and presented by Planet Connections Theatre Festivity. Details are here. 4.48 Psychosis in Kingston upon Thames, UK Kingston University Drama department present 4.48 Psychosis on 7 May 2015 at the Rose Studio, Rose Theatre, Kingston upon Thames. "Her final play. Her final words. This production will make you question your perceptions of mental illness in innovative and exciting ways. What is mental illness? What is mental health? And how much of mental illness is just a part of the human experience? Vertigo Theatre Company explores and attempts to answer these essential questions in their riveting production of Sarah Kane's enigmatic masterpiece 4:48 Psychosis." Details are here. Crave in Cambridge, USA
Machine 5 presents Crave. It is on at:
"In this plotless play four characters known as A, B, C and M interact in a whirlwind of dialogues voicing ideas, emotions, memories and desires. Devoid of definitive interpretation and often cryptic, Crave is a poetic piece with distinct rhythm and musicality which I felt was an essential feature of the play." Click on the image for more details. Sarah Kane plays in Sheffield, UK
A chance to see all of Sarah's plays and her film at Sheffield Theatres, UK. "I had the great privilege of knowing Sarah Kane.
4-21 Feb
2015 Blasted Click on the image for more details. Blasted in Wales
The Other Room present Blasted from 17 Feb-
7 Mar 2015. The actors are Christian Patterson, Louise Collins and Simon
Nehan. Blasted in Vancouver, Canada
Blasted in on at Performance Works, Granville Isl and from 10- 25 Apr 2015. The actors
are Cherise Clarke, Raresh DiMofte, and Michael Kopsa. Sound and
projection by Remy Siu, costumes by Carmen Alatorre, set by Drew Facey and
graphic design by Kristen Johnston. 4.48 Psychosis in Greece
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ΨΥΧΩΣΗ! [4.48 Psychosis] της
SARAH KANE
4.48 Psychosis in London
Questors Theatre present 4.48 Psychosis from 23- 31 Feb 2015. Click on the image for more details.
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