She points to Kane’s formal experimentalism, the startling urgency and precision of her language, the way the play itself invites the audience to experience a form of psychosis, in which reality dissolves even as it appears. The plot demands a deeper analysis of what mental health issues are — what’s the right way to attend to people suffering from depression; how empathetic and compassionate one needs to be; and who decides on the extent of medication and institutional care,” Shatarupa elaborates. In 2003, there was a successful staging in Brazil, which played to a full house for six consecutive months in São Paulo, and also gained media attention for its defying gender aspect, as the role was performed by male actor Luiz Päetow. The other two stages — “realising that her depression is more serious than what it looks like” and “worried about figuring out how to get through it” — are essayed by actors Durga Venkatesan and Yeshaswini Channaiah respectively.

Obviously, it isn’t an easy watch for the audience either, as there is a constant sense of distress and discomfort among all. The first such adaptation of Kane's works, the production was approved by Sarah Kane's brother, and received critical acclaim. Michael Billington of The Guardian newspaper asked, "How on earth do you award aesthetic points to a 75-minute suicide note? Psychosis was first performed at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs , London, on 23 June 2000.She understands theatre at such a deep level; in some ways I don’t think we’ve caught up with her yet. The opera was awarded a Royal Philharmonic Society for Best Large Scale Composition 2017, a British Composer Award for Best Stage Work 2017, a UK Theatre Award for Best Opera 2016 and it was shortlisted for an Olivier Award for Best Opera in 2017 and a Southbank Award for Best Opera in 2017.

Bringing out my own pain and emotions became pertinent to be honest with the role I essayed on stage,” she explains. Psychosis is a ‘choreopoem’ that follows the upheavals of a girl’s psyche, who really wanted to live but was never in love with life. Sarah Kane burst on the London stage at the age of 24, in a media frenzy of scorn, derision and distaste for her work. According to Durga, the script may seem disjointed on the surface, but for her as an actor, it was important to tap into Sarah’s emotions and the pain that she was going through to be able to portray it on stage.It was her last work, first staged at the Royal Court's Jerwood Theatre Upstairs on 23 June 2000, directed by James Macdonald, nearly one and a half years after Kane's death on 20 February 1999. We were very worried about creating the right context,” remembers Ian Rickson, then artistic director. All three actors set about learning the text in its entirety; every moment would be rehearsed, but in keeping with the script’s freeform feel, it was decided that some sections should be left to the moment – if one person started a speech, the lines would be theirs for that performance. So, my journey in this project began by trying to comprehend her previously written plays,” says Durga. Some portions appear to be dialogue, perhaps between a patient and a dictatorial clinician (“ Oh dear, what’s happened to your arm?

There’d been these tabloid frenzies over her early plays, and we wanted this play to be received as a play. A great deal of ink has been spilled on Kane’s too-short life and death, and not nearly enough on the story of the play itself. Psychosis heralds a break with all theatrical conventions–the play reads more like a poem, without character distinctions or stage directions –and even presents much of Kane’s personal medical history–her struggle with antidepressants, suicidal tendencies and her philosophical wrestling with the idea of mortality.All of us have battled anxiety issues at some point of our life, and working on this piece has absorbed us to a great extent. David Greig considered the play to be "perhaps uniquely painful in that it appears to have been written in the almost certain knowledge that it would be performed posthumously. Photograph: Jane Bown/The Observer View image in fullscreen Her writing refuses to be categorised … Sarah Kane in 1998.