shahida zakaria: 4:48 Psychosis; Touching Death

“You witness someone’s mind spiralling out” This is the utterance from the director of 4:48 Psychosis, Gavin Yap which I read at the lobby of Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPac) 45 minutes before the plays starts thus, it gives me ideas of what the plays would be about. The play was scheduled to be at 3 p.m, but we have to wait for 15 minutes due to some technical problem. Anyhow, I was relief since it was overcame and I can watch the play even though it was a little bit delayed and luckily the excitement to watch the play is still there. 4:48 Psychosis shows the young talented director, Gavin Yap directs Samantha Schubert, Malik Taufiq and Susan Lankester and it is undeniably that these three outstanding actor and actresses have done terrific performance. The play takes one step closer to her inner feelings by allowing the audience a glance into what went through her mind as her depression sent her spiraling into self-destruction and eventual suicide. The roles of the three players represent facets of her mind which they are all just one person that resembles her life as dark, deep and intense. The play takes one step closer to her inner feelings by allowing the audience a glance into what went through her mind as her depression sent her spiraling into self-destruction and eventual suicide. The roles of the three players represent facets of her mind which they are all just one person that resembles her life as dark, deep and intense. Susan, Samantha and Malik characterize the same person yet with different intensity of how they deliver the dialogue. It is as if they resemble the different demons inside them that they had to let go of. As far I am concerns, Sarah Kane’s 4:48 Psychosis has a lot of repetitions of words such as the word nothing (surprisingly same as in King Lear), repetition of a interesting line which is “Could, would, should or will I?” The significance of “4:48” that it is the darkest hour of before dawn which at the end of the play one of the play said “At 4:48, I shall be sleep” and shows that “sleep” here refers to death as a “beautiful pain”. The play goes very well as those brilliant players completely engulf with their performance as if it really happen deep inside them. Dealing with darker side of the human psyche is not an easy material to work with, yet Gavin Yap does it perfectly especially on how he manipulates the element of aside in the play. In terms of the props, there are less props that had been used; basically stairs and doors which might symbolizes something. When we asks Gavin, on the less props used, he said that he want to focus more on the words on what is meant to said, the emotion and the gestures. Apart, so much of the play is in darkness and he says that “the less you can see, the more you think”. Well, I guess he is true, as the plays finish I feel quite tense to actually think of the issue of the tortured mind that “talks"