4.48 PSYCHOSIS
4.48 PSYCHOSIS lays bare the chronic struggle of an individual to create a coherent sense of self in a society which is crumbling at the hand of its own hyperviolence. Inspired by personal experiences of gender and neurodivergence, hauntological theory, cult horror films and contemporary noise and drone music, Mackenna stages this cult classic through the lens of their current societal confusion, fear, disgust and horror.
Written at the end of the 21st Century, in the midst of the radical decline of Western values upheld throughout the past hundred years, 4.48 PSYCHOSIS is Sarah Kane’s last play, and her most vulnerable. Created in a time in which she had “lost faith in love”, Kane composed a web of deeply intimate fragments in which the life of an individual blooms and unravels.
Mackenna stages the play as a lonely, eclectic monologue. Surrounded by an excruciatingly violent landscape of love and loss, our main character obsessively seeks tenderness and clarity at the edge of their grave. Haunted by bodily dysphoria, psychological dysphoria and societal dysphoria, followed by the ghosts of their life and paralysed by shame and anger, they mourn the past, the present and, especially, the lost future.
Is it possible to live your life in a way you believe in as a member of a species which seems hellbent on orchestrating its own obliteration? Is this a world I can live in without lying about who I am? And what do I do if I see the pieces of me turn to ash?
With 4.48 PSYCHOSIS, Erasmus Mackenna continues developing their body of work researching and portraying the lives of outsiders, centring around how they navigate the extremities of their life in the face of impending personal and societal doom.
Premières on the 19th of February 2026 at Frascati Theatre in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
CONCEPT, DIRECTION, LIGHTING DESIGN, MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN Erasmus Mackenna
WRITTEN BY Sarah Kane
PERFORMANCE Sabine van Kuipers
TRANSLATION Han van Wieringen
DRAMATURGY Belle de Wit
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT Tosca Schutte
TECHNICAL PRODUCTION Wouter Versteege
PRODUCED BY Frascati Productions