Sarah Kane’s “4.48 Psychosis”, written shortly before her suicide at the age of 28 in a psychiatric hospital and seen as a German premiere at the Kammerspiele in 2001, is almost unbearable as a spoken play. But in Philip Venables’ chamber opera, which premiered in 2016, sung and spoken by six young women, whispered and shouted, simultaneously or alone, chanted with tones from the tape or just on the bass drum and the text as the main title in the reactor hall, the whole thing works even more under the skin. Because sometimes the tones screw themselves into your ear with a bright, glaring shade, or a large wooden stick repeatedly hits the ground as if someone was going to be crushed with it.
Chamber opera “4.48 Psychosis” based on Sarah Kane’s last piece – Munich
