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New Statesman
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New Statesman
4.48 Psychosis is a disturbing dissection of the mind
Photo by Marc Brenner Twenty-five years since it was first staged, the playwright Sarah Kane's final play returns to the Royal Court's Jerwood Theatre Upstairs. Labelled Kane's 'suicide note' by critics (the play was first performed the year after Kane took her own life), 4.48 Psychosis enters into the mind of an unnamed woman struggling with suicidal thoughts, derealisation and poor patient care – horrors made all the more intense by a theatre that sits 80. First performed before sertraline, Prozac and venlafaxine became part of casual conversation, it is no surprise that the play disturbed viewers. A quarter of a century on, it is still disturbing. And it should be. Kane convincingly portrayed the desperation and urgency of suicidal thoughts. The unnamed woman is played by three actors – all of whom were part of the original cast – at times speaking in unison, finishing each other's sentences or contradicting one another. The monologues, though, cannot be taken for delirious ramblings – the play's protagonist is highly intelligent and self-aware, eliciting laughs from the audience. Her erratic moods are only intensified by Nigel Edwards' lighting design: the blue and purple washes, low golden lights, the white and greys of TV static cast over the actors after the main character starts taking her antidepressants. The set designer, Jeremy Herbert, gives the audience an alternative perspective through which to watch: a six-panelled mirror, suspended from the ceiling at an angle. You can choose to see the story unfold in front of you, as you would real life, or watch a distorted reflection of it. 'Hatch opens,' say the actors on numerous occasions. But what do they mean? A moment of clarity and relief amid the anguish? A hatch into Kane's mind in the last few months before she took her own life? Either way, 4.48 Psychosis is a remarkably frank dissection of a mind at war with itself. 4.48 Psychosis Royal Court, London WC2. Until 5 July 2025 [See also: Thom Yorke's Hamlet is brilliantly rendered sacrilege] Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Related This article appears in the 25 Jun 2025 issue of the New Statesman, State of Emergency
The Guardian
25-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Ambika Mod to play porn addict in ‘funny, unsettling and honest' play at the Royal Court
Ambika Mod is to star as an academic addicted to violent pornography in a new play at the Royal Court in London. Mod, best known for her screen performances in One Day and This Is Going to Hurt, will take on her highest profile theatre role to date in Porn Play, written by Sophia Chetin-Leuner and directed by Josie Rourke. Billed as 'funny, unsettling and honest', it opens in November at the Royal Court's smaller Jerwood Theatre Upstairs. Chetin-Leuner, whose play This Might Not Be It was set in a mental health unit and staged at the Bush last year, said: 'Ever since I was a teenager, going to see plays at the Royal Court has shaped my ideals and purpose of who I want to be as a writer – so it's a terrifying privilege to have Porn Play debuting here.' The play was shortlisted for Soho theatre's Verity Bargate award in 2022. Chetin-Leuner said she began writing it to explore the effects of pornography on women but that it has 'evolved into something much more delicate and intricate over the years'. Mod, who studied at the St Albans performing arts school Theatrix, is also an improv and sketch comedian. Last summer she appeared with the comedy troupe the Free Association at the Edinburgh fringe. Her stage productions have included Nassim Soleimanpour's White Rabbit Red Rabbit, a monologue which performers deliver sight unseen. Porn Play is one of four new premieres announced by the Royal Court. Deaf Republic, which opens in August, is adapted from the poems of Ukrainian-American author Ilya Kaminsky and will be staged by the company Dead Centre, collaborating with the poet Zoë McWhinney. It will be told through spoken English, sign language, creative captioning and puppetry, using an ensemble of deaf and hearing actors. That will be followed by a co-production with the National Theatre of Greece entitled Cow | Deer created by Katie Mitchell, Nina Segal and Melanie Wilson. A performance with no words, it will evoke the lives of the eponymous animals and is described by the trio as 'an experiment in recalibration … looking beyond the purely human into the more-than-human world'. Opening in October is a new play by Nick Payne, The Unbelievers, starring Nicola Walker who is currently in the throuple comedy Unicorn in the West End. The Unbelievers will be directed by Marianne Elliott who called it an 'honest exploration of motherhood'. The theatre also announced the return of Soleimanpour's Echo, which had a short run last summer, and a tour for Breach theatre's Section 28 musical After the Act, previously staged at the New Diorama in London when it was run by David Byrne, who took over at the Royal Court in 2024. It was also announced that Tife Kusoro, whose play G drew acclaim last year, will join the theatre on attachment for 18 months and write a new play.
