Royal Court Premieres Kane's Final Play

The Royal Court will stage the world premiere of the last play by the late playwright Sarah Kane this summer. 4.48 Psychosis will run from 24 June to 15 July 2000 in the Court's Jerwood Theatre Upstairs.

Kane, whose plays include Blasted, Cleansed and Crave, committed suicide in February 1999 just days after her 28th birthday. The young playwright rose controversially to prominence in 1995 when, aged 23, the Royal Court staged her first play Blasted. The play disgusted many critics with its portrayal of cannibalism and male and female rape.

Kane's predilection for violence continued to divide critics in subsequent plays - Phaedra's Love, which she also directed, at the Gate Theatre and, back at the Royal Court in 1998, Cleansed. Her final work before her death, Crave, received its world premiere at 1998's Edinburgh Festival Fringe and later received a London run back at the Royal Court. The play, in which four characters sit and talk in verse of obsessive love, was more enthusiastically received by critics who appreciated the lack of gore and believed it demonstrated Kane's maturity as a playwright. But, perhaps tellingly, the play ended with suicide.

4.48 Psychosis, in which the central character dreams of going to the doctor's and being given just eight minutes to live, is directed by James McDonald and designed by Jeremy Herbert with lighting by Nigel Edwards.

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