Canberra Youth Theatre
Directed by Karla Conway
The Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre Centre
Reviewed by Len Power 19 November 2012
Should ‘youth theatre’ be a protective learning environment
for our young actors? If so, Canberra Youth
Theatre’s production of ‘4:48 Psychosis’ might leave you wondering.
Written by Sarah Kane, who committed suicide shortly after
finishing the play, it was produced posthumously at the famous Royal Court Theatre
in London in 2000. According to the
director’s program notes, ‘Kane’s writing reflects the In-Yer-Face Movement of
the 1990s – a new form designed to shake the audience, to snap them out of
passivity and apathy, to be tortured (if necessary) into action’.
The play takes us deep into the mind of a young woman hospitalised
with severe depression. Played by a
group of women to show different facets of the illness, we witness a number of gut-wrenching
sessions with her psychiatrist leading up to her inevitable suicide.
The director, Karla Conway, has achieved performances of great
depth from the entire cast of young women.
The violence and anger played out before us is frightening and
confronting. The seemingly cold and
clinical psychiatrist is also clearly affected emotionally by the anguish of
the patients she deals with daily.
The cleverly designed set of hanging plastic sheeting gives
an impression of a sterile hospital environment. It was designed by Hanna Sandgren and is
complemented by the lighting of Samantha Pickering and sound design by Michael
Foley and composer, Rose Ottley. It’s
quite a shock moment when the lighting changes on what we thought was clear
plastic to find it is actually covered in graffiti saying over and over, ‘RSVP
ASAP’.
The night I saw the show, it seemed to have a wobbly start,
or was it supposed to be that way? This is
a play that doesn’t follow any audience expectations. I had some difficulty at times hearing the
dialogue clearly and I thought it would have had more dramatic effect if it had
finished with the powerful image of the girl’s suicide, rather than trailing
off with an unnecessary epilogue.
This was a very brave and worthwhile play for a youth
theatre to stage. It deals unflinchingly
with issues confronted and experienced by young people. Too often, theatre practitioners talk about
their plays being ‘relevant’, but this play certainly is.
