March 08, 2013

4.48 Psychosis

by Sarah Kane
Performances on March 8, 9, 14, 15, & 16 at 7:30pm.

Written by Sarah Kane
Performances on March 8, 9, 14, 15, & 16 at 7:30 p.m.

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Director: Assistant Professor Rebecca Lingafelter
Scenographer: Associate Professor Michael Olich
Lighting Designer: Staff Technical Director Matthew Robins
Sound Designer: Mark Valadez

“It is myself I have never met, whose face is pasted on the underside of my mind…” - 4.48 Psychosis
“O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven.” - King Lear

4.48 Psychosis is a play for the 21st Century. Devoid of delineated voices and textual indications of the number or gender of the performers, Sarah Kane’s seminal work creates a fragmented world in which the multiple voices of a single psyche attempt to understand itself.  Marked by its post-dramatic structure and its painful position as Kane’s last play, 4.48 Psychosis asks us to encounter the complexity of the human experience in all of its terror and beauty.  Inspired by the distinct vignettes within the text, the ensemble will create discreet worlds to contain Kane’s raw and revealing language.  Employing a vaudevillian structure, our production will shift among worlds or “acts” to create a kaleidoscope experience of an individual’s struggle with sanity. 

Sarah Kane was born in 1971.  Her first play Blasted was produced at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in 1995.  Her second play, Phaedra’s Love, was produced at the Gate Theatre in 1996.  In April 1998, Cleansed was produced at the Royal Court Theatre Downstairs, and in September 1998, Crave was produced by the Paines Plough and Bright Ltd at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh.  Her last play, 4.48 Psychosis, premiered at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs in June 2000.  Her short film, Skin, was produced by British Screen/Channel Four premiered in June 1997.  Sarah Kane died in 1999.

Check for Box Office information here.

Pre-show panels:

Sarah Kane, British Playwriting, and Contemporary Performance
Saturday March 9
6-7pm
Fir Acres Black Box Theater
Sarah Kane was a playwright who wrote most of her work during the 1990’s in Great Britain. Her plays are characterized by spare and visceral language, experimentation with theatrical form,  and often violent or sexually explicit themes. This panel will discuss Sarah Kane’s work in relationship to theatre history, her impact on subsequent playwrights, and her contributions to contemporary performance. Each panelist will give a short presentation followed by a question and answer period.
Moderator: Rebecca Lingafelter, Assistant Professor of Theatre, Lewis & Clark College
Panelists:
Stephen Weeks, Associate Professor of Theatre, Lewis & Clark College
Erin Boberg Doughton (LC ‘ 94), Performing Arts Program Director, PICA
Grace Carter, Director, Defunkt Theatre
 
Cultural Construction of Otherness
Saturday March 16
6-7pm
Fir Acres Black Box Theater
Sarah Kane’s play 4:48 Psychosis delves into questions of otherness and its representation in our culture. What are the signs we use to telegraph an individual’s seperation from social and cultural norms? How do we represent otherness in our art and our culture and how does this representation begin to define what otherness is? This panel will focus on the different ways that our culture represents, understands and constructs otherness. 
Moderator: Tom Schoeneman, Professor of Psychology, Lewis & Clark College
Panelists:
Reiko Hillyer, Assistant Professor of History, Lewis & Clark College
Rishona Zimmring, Associate Professor of English, Lewis & Clark College
Rebecca Lingafetler, Assistant Professor of Theatre, Lewis & Clark College