King’s students tackle issue of suicide in ‘challenging’ play

4.48 Psychosis is interpretation of poetry - director

A scene of the Psycosis play. Photo by Mark Buckley

"The play is raw from beginning to end," says Emma Hanes a King's Spanish and linguistics student and audience member . "Involuntarily, you participate in the tragedy experienced by a distraught, highly intelligent, troubled woman. "

She is talking about 4.48 Psychosis, a play by British playwright Sarah Kane which ran this month at the Pit at King's College.

"Immediately upon entering to the theatre space, you are struck by an overwhelming sense of self-consciousness, the lights reminiscent of a fluorescently lit hospital room," Hanes added.

The play is directed by Simon Bloom, an English student at King's College and is produced by Kate Connolly.

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4.48 Psychosis, a play by British playwright Sarah Kane which ran this month at the Pit at King's College.

Hanes says, "The writing is bold, the players provoke, and ultimately upon leaving the space, you are drained, yet unsure how such an inaccessible play affected you so intensely."

Director Bloom explains the play.

"It's about a woman who is in the hospital and suffering from mental depression."

"She's thinking about suicide, she has to be monitored by doctors and it's about her relationship with the doctors and the ultimate decision about whether she is going to commit suicide or not."

"It's a sort of something that grew from the rehearsals," Bloom said about the process of directing this intense play. "The script doesn't have any indication of how many people are in the play, how many different characters there are or how many scenes. A lot of this is poetry so it's about interpreting what that sort of means."

The play starred Ella Bedard, Jennalee Desjardins and Lewis Wynne-Jones and Jennalee Desjardins.

"I think it is a really challenging play for a lot of different reasons. It's not technically a play. It's a poem the entire way through. It's not actually dialogue or anything," said Wynne-Jones, one of the actors.

"The director, Simon Blood, has found a creative dramatic thing in that and the portrait, I think, is quite beautiful."

"It's a moving play. Some people will like it and some people will not but the audience needs to make the final decision," he concluded.

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