ROSA SARKISIAN AND ACTOR THEATRE (KYIV)
"4.48 Psychosis" (by Sarah Kane, translation by Oleh Lysheha)
The Performance: The cabaret production of the play 4.48 Psychosis presents in remarkable juxtaposition a pathological lust for life with the incessant, deliberate preparation for death. Here, patients encounter physicians equally in need of treatment and engage in an incendiary dance of wills at the sickbed. Worn down by the quotidian, the players find themselves standing at a threshold, bound within the domain of experimentation and its limits. They examine their own pain – that which frees and that which fuels the desire to live – constrained by equal and opposing urges to lament and to speak pure truth. Faced with the brutal frankness of this esoteric piece of British playwriting, the producers engage the thought that normality, in truth, can be found even at the heart of psychic disturbance. It remains ambiguous as to whether ‘tis better to live life “sick”, or to die and free oneself from the madness.
Creative Team:
Director - Rosa Sarkisian
Stage Design - Diana Khodyachykh
Composer - Oleksandra Malatskovska
Curator - Nastya Jumla
Premiere – 27-28 February 2018
About the "Actor" Theatre:
The "Actor Theatre" is a modern theatre that features alternative, breakthrough productions by emerging and experienced directors as well as sophisticated, classical and time-tested performances.
Our current season is developed along four distinct objectives: Actor.Classics, Actor.Underground, Actor.Kids and Actor.Home theatre. The goal is to create a free space for the implementation of theatrical vision reflecting a variety of genres and styles – one stage as a home for both established classics and experimental productions.
Leading national artists and actors from Kyiv’s most esteemed theatres and graduates from top schools play their craft on the “Actor” stage, including Ada Rogovtseva, Oleksiy Vertinsky, Lyudmila Ardelyan, Anatoly Hnatyuk, Valery Shalyga, and many others. In addition to its stage productions, the theatre hosts master classes by theatre and cinema actors, and partners with the Botan Library “Chitachi” (Readers) project, where prominent Ukrainians perform readings for children and adults.
About the director:
Rosa Sarkisian is the newly appointed lead director of Lviv’s First Ukrainian Theatre for Children and Youth. She has previously worked as a theatrical curator, taken part in a number of international dramaturgy laboratories and schools, and founded the Kharkiv-based "DeFacto" theatre project. In her work, Rosa is examining new forms through a synthesis of theatrical technique, post-documentary theatre, music and performance.
Past projects and performances: "Yes, my Führer"; a site-specific project "There is No Time. Behind the Glass"; a theatrical research study "To Kill a Woman"; a performance "Museum of Peace. Museum of War"; "the theory of the big filter"; performer and playwright with Joanna Vykhovskaya in "Before the War After the War / Part 1" (Warsaw Commune Theatre); co-author of the project "DESANT.UA" in Warsaw (Ukrainian Critical Theatre showcase); co-director of the Ukrainian-Polish project "My Grandfather Dug. My Father dug. But I will not dig." In 2017, Sarkisian received a Gaude Polonia scholarship and internship at the Warsaw-based theatres Commune//Warsaw, the Theatre Warszawa, and the Theatre of the Believers.