4.48 Psychosis. Rebecca Johannsen, the artistic director, directs this, the last work of Kane, completed shortly before the playwright committed suicide. Stone Soup is one of the few theaters that mandates taking risks with less commercial plays that challenge their audiences. Kane's plays easily fit that requirement. Like her Crave, 4.48 Psychosis is guaranteed to challenge directors and producing companies. Truly an experimental play, it assigns no lines to a given character.
4.48 Psychosis is an experience.
The title refers to 4.48 a.m., a time when the human will to live is at an ebb. It is mentioned several times throughout the short play, "At 4.48...when desperation visits...I shall hang myself...to the sound of my lover's breathing" and "When it has passed, I shall be gone again, a fragmented puppet, a grotesque fool."
She questions who defines what is and is not sane and according to what criteria. Her voice is a woman in a mental institution. But really, we spend most of our time inside the woman's mind, where conflict abounds. This conflict is expressed by two actresses, Olive Espinosa and Therese Schneck. To further conflict the audience, Steve Hohman, generally a hospital clinician/shrink, also espouses some of the patient's thoughts. Director Johannsen uses extremely pregnant pauses, at times, to express feelings or accent a thought.
The setting, designed by Valerie Steele, consists of a raised stage with two backlit hanging pieces of narrow slit-plastic panels allowing the characters to exit and enter. Johannsen's staging of the actors flows organically from riser to steps to curtains. Jonathan Seaman provides a minimalist projection of words and title on the backdrop. Add to this choreographer Erica Aisha Moore's rolling, creeping, crawling, entangled bodies moving to her sound tracks. Her music and sound effects enhance but sometimes overpower the dialogue. Crystal Watts' lighting is extremely moody, which fits the dark text. Markee Rambo Hood dresses Espinosa in a long, black, almost formless dress with white sleeves draped to the floor. Schneck's all-white dress further illustrates the divided mind. Hohman is in white hospital attire.
This is not an easy piece to watch. Since 4.48 Psychosis offers the possibility of an infinite amount of interpretations, one's reactions tend to be more visceral than intellectual. Whether one likes this production, or even the work itself, might arise from the subconscious and one's life experiences. Certainly, it's a play to elicit interesting conversation on the drive home.
