The Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Court Theatre are to stage a new co-production of 4.48 Psychosis with the original cast and creative team revisiting Sarah Kane’s final play after 25 years.
First performed at the Royal Court Jerwood Upstairs on 23 June 2000, 4.48 Psychosis “plunges the audience into the mind of an unnamed protagonist grappling with severe depression”. This “unflinching portrait of a psyche teetering on the edge of oblivion” will be directed by James Macdonald with original cast members Daniel Evans, Jo McInnes and Madeleine Potter reprising their roles.
The production will open at the Royal Court Theatre from Thursday 12 June until Saturday 5 July 2025, with press night on Wednesday 18 June. It will then transfer to The Other Place, Stratford for only 20 performances from Thursday 10 until Sunday 27 July, with local press night on Tuesday 15 July.
The final performance will take place at 4:48AM on the morning of Sunday 27 July. It will include a post-show discussion with the cast and creative team over breakfast.
RSC co-artistic directors Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey said, “Sarah Kane’s final work cemented her legacy as a seminal playwright of British theatre. Twenty-five years on from the play’s première at the Royal Court Theatre, this new production represents a landmark moment for the RSC in 2025. To be staging this era-defining work in The Other Place, a theatre synonymous with radical new productions, is particularly thrilling.”
Evans, who was in the original cast, added, “I had the privilege of first working with Sarah Kane on Cleansed in 1998. Within two years, I was back in the rehearsal room alongside Madeleine Potter and Jo McInnes rehearsing her final play. I think it’s safe to say we all felt the weight of responsibility.
“To be back in that same rehearsal room 25 years on, reunited with director James Macdonald and the original creative team, is both a tremendous honour and a joy, knowing that new generations of audiences will have the opportunity to experience this complex, vital and astonishing play through a new lens in 2025.”
Joining Macdonald on the creative team will be set and costume designer Jeremy Herbert, lighting designer Nigel Edwards and sound designer Paul Arditti.