“The chicken won’t stop dancing”
Blog has been somewhat neglected recently, so here’s something to get the ball rolling once more.
Touching nugget from Mel Kenyon, Kane’s literary agent
On being delivered the manuscript of 4.48 Psychosis, very shortly before Kane’s death:
(Interview by Simon Stephens, found at Royal Court Theatre’s archive: http://www.royalcourttheatre.com/files/downloads/sarah_kane_edupack.pdf)
“When she delivered the play it was the week before she died. It was the Olivier Awards afternoon. I remember it, vividly. It was kind of a schizophrenic afternoon for me. She came in. I was going to this bloody award ceremony. She was very agitated and it wasn’t like Sarah to be agitated. And she said ‘I’ve got my new play, I’ve got my new play, I’ve got my new play, you have to read it, you have to read it, you have to read it.’ And I went to the Olivier Awards and by the time I got back she’d started to ring. I mean this is three hours later. ‘Have you read it? Have you read it? Have you read it?’ This was not like Sarah at all. So I knew something was odd.
I came in on the Saturday because I wanted to be completely alone. And I rang her at two, which I said I would do. And we discussed it. And actually I said that it needed more jokes. And we said that it was very beautiful. And we talked about the music of it. And the fact that it was probably for three people. We discussed the doctor exchanges. We discussed counterpoint. She actually did a re-write. And its the first time she took notes, I mean really took on board the notes, and so I’m kind of very grateful.
She typed up the play on the Sunday. Her first suicide attempt, I think, was the Tuesday night. They found her on the Wednesday morning, she went into hospital. I went to see her on the Thursday. I don’t think she had delivered the re-writes of 4.48 at this point. We had a laugh. She was very, very funny. She was very, very calm. She was absolutely wonderful and we talked about everything under the sun and I bought her a packet of fags. I left her. She killed herself the following day.
It then transpires she left me all these plays with 4.48. She had re-typed and re-drafted all of them, and left them in a package on the Tuesday. And she left me a note, in typical Sarah fashion, a note of instruction. It was her final letter to me. It was also a letter of love and warmth I suppose. And she said about 4.48. ‘Do with it what you will. At least get it published. Just remember: writing it killed me.’ So I thought, ‘ooh, easy task then, thanks Sarah.’
After a while I gave it to James and he read it. The Court were terrified of doing it. James was too, quite understandably, though he was in love with it. I think Simon and I, at this point it was the August, felt very strongly that it had to be done. I think that was right. But I could hardly bear to watch it.”
A very exciting time…
First set of auditions for 4.48 now completed. The process begins…
“ To what extent can a performance of “4.48 Psychosis” codify Sarah Kane’s mentality at the time of writing?
Aleks Sierz vs. Graham Saunders
Saunders is author of “About Kane: The Playwright and the Work” & “‘Love me or kill me’: Sarah Kane and the Theatre of the Extremes”
James MacDonald vs. Aleks Sierz
On Kane.
The critic Sierz is author of “In-Yer-Face Theatre”, heavily featuring Kane et al. (That’s on the reading list…)
They never got her
James MacDonald, director of NT’s 2004 Exiles, also directed the premiere of Kane’s Blasted in 1995. Here he is on Sarah Kane…
