Supporting Notes

Name: Kate Landy

Candidate Number: 8084
Centre Number: 26218
Practitioner: Artaud
Script: '4:48 Psychosis' by Sarah Kane
Chosen Skill: Acting
Section 1
Antonin Artaud
Born in 1896, Artaud was a French theatre director, actor, playwright and poet. With a
troubled early life, including being born into a religious family and falling ill with meningitis,
he became independent and isolated. He aimed to transform the theatre of the time with his
work, most commonly known as the ‘Theatre of Cruelty’. He was also influenced by the
surrealist movement in the 1920s of which he was a member, and therefore found a way of
communicating personal, intimate experiences using surreal and erratic fantasies. Artaud’s
anticipations and goals for his work differentiated greatly from western theatrical
conventions, where the purpose of a performance was to entertain the spectators. His main
objectives were to:

 Make his audience question themselves after ‘experiencing’ one of his pieces, which
were to reflect life: ‘I cannot conceive any work of art as having a separate existence
from life itself’ (Antonin Artaud, The Theatre and Its Double).
 Show the intensity and truth of life. This was accomplished by having actors
representing an inner state of mind – this way, the audience could feel emotions
concurrently with the actors, usually uncomfortable feelings. The actors would create
these feelings by using exaggerated and stylized movement, this became known as
‘visual poetry’.
 Experiment with the actor-audience relationship and bombard their senses, so the
performance became a cathartic release of emotion.
Sarah Kane & ‘4:48 Psychosis’
We feel that Artaud’s style of acting would do the piece justice, and believed it is the style
Sarah Kane intended it to be performed in. The 'Theatre of Cruelty' would make the
performance extreme and thought provoking due to the nature of the piece, alongside our
intense extracts chosen.
First shown at Royal Court's Jerwood Theatre almost two years after Kane’s Death, 4.48
Psychosis explores clinical depression, experienced by Kane. It was believed that this was her
final ‘swansong’; she killed herself after writing the play. There are no clear characters or
stage directions, which leaves the play to be openly interpreted. The play covers many of
Artaud’s aims. Due to explicit themes such as self-harm, suicide and depression, there is an
obvious theme of ‘cruelty’; this shocks the audience. The text lends itself to Artaudian
techniques. Due to the stylised writing, we can use ‘visual poetry’. The dark subject matter
will be the perfect foundation to perturb the audience and invade their senses, experimenting
with the actor-audience relationship.
Artaud’s Techniques
We experiment with the actor-audience relationship. This is a vital element of Artaud’s work,
as he wanted actors to break the ‘4th Wall’ and involve the audience.
We do this by isolating yet involving the audience. By setting chairs in our performance
auditorium apart from each other, this isolates the audience so individual member’s feelings
of the experience are heightened, as they have no ‘protection’ from other members. We act
in the audience space and touch them, to make them realise that they are involved in our
performance too. They cannot spectate as they are in the mind of Sarah Kane.
We use sound and light to ‘engage an audience’s inner sense’. These elements are in keeping
with techniques used by Artaud to make the audience uncomfortable.
By using sharp light changes, the audience feel exposed and violated. The use of loud sounds,
and eerie music assaults the audience’s senses, and they become shocked and scared.
We use movement in our piece to express emotions, rather than words. This is because
Artaud believed that visual poetry could be created, by stylized movements.
Our choreographed movements can be powerful when performed simultaneously or with
words; it gives emphasis to the emotion that we are portraying. The script of ‘4.48’ lends itself
to movement, due to the lack of clear sentences, and rhythmical structures at some points.
Kane uses imagery, which helps us to create our movements. Some of these movements are
ritualistic, which complies with Artaud’s fantasy ideas. This sets our piece far away from
realism; this is enhanced by our lack of ‘scenery’, as we only use plain staging and mirrors.
These mirrors force the audience to examine themselves.
WORDS: 683
Bibliography:
THE THEATRE AND IT’S DOUBLE (Antonin Artaud)
Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4.48_Psychosis
Drama and Theatre Studies (S. Mackey, S. Cooper)