Reviews - Fringe 2016

Fringe 2016 Review: 4.48 Psychosis

By Kenneth Kelbrook
Published July 18, 2016

This play by recently deceased British Playwright Sarah Kane is a true Fringe play in that it is experimental in both style and substance. The three actors presenting the piece freely interchange the roles of Patients, Doctors, Nurses and Lovers, constantly shifting roles from scene to scene.

There is no logical story, so don't look for this to make sense in a traditional way. The performance is meant to mimic the fluid and irrational thoughts of the psychotic mind. To enjoy and understand the play, the viewer must release themselves from rational thought and enter into the intense world of the Deeply Depressed and Psychotic.

Strong, intense performances throughout by all three actors, do occasionally slip into recitation. Frantic writing on mirrors was wasted because we could not see or read anything reflected under the glare of the lights. But maybe that communicates how difficult it is for the insane to reach out.

Overall it is was a very dramatic experience of feeling that you have actually entered into the mind of someone obsessed, psychotic and deeply suffering. If you can give yourself to the spirit of the performance, you will be rewarded with a catharsis of understanding.

Kenneth Kelbrook is a seasoned theatre director who has worked all across the nation. Shows in Hamilton include: Doctor Faustus in October of last year at the Pearl Company with Make Art Theatre, The Two Row Wampum performed at Pier Four Park, The Boiler Room Suite with Theatre Terra Nova and many, many years ago, I Ought to be in Pictures at Caesar's Dinner Theatre.

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