âReally terrifying⌠but also really freeingâ: 4.48 Psychosis and Portraying Mental Illness Onstage
Liz Whitbread performs in Theatre By The Riverâs production of 4.48 Psychosis. She is also rocking the shit out of those high-waisted shorts. Photo: Giovanni Navarro.
You can go to any fringe festival in the world, throw a stone, and hit a poster for a comedic show. I promise. Fringe is often a time for improv-ers and sketch-ers to stretch their legs for a ten-day or week-long performance schedule and roll around in audiences looking to have a good time on a weekend. And although thatâs all fun and good and you can definitely find quality theatre productions while wading through knee-deep pools of laughs, fringe festivals are about more than that. Theyâre about experimenting â for both the theatre companies and the audiences. Trying new things, going to something that might make you uncomfortable, or seeing a show on a subject you know nothing about. Thatâs what Fringe is â getting out there.
I had the joy and privilege to sit down with the luminous Liz Whitbread (and you should too, given the opportunity) about this very thing, regarding her performance in Sarah Kaneâs 4.48 Psychosis, about to begin at the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival. 4.48 does not have a linear storyline, nor is the script written like a traditional script (âOne page is just blank. Itâs part of the script, but itâs blank,â she told me). Whitbread performs by herself, with the audience surrounding three-fourths of the âwalls,â and â oh, yes, the author of the play killed herself shortly after finishing it. 4.48 is Kaneâs swan song.
Whitbread said she âwouldnât call it [Kaneâs] suicide note,â but that kind of thing still carries a lot of weight, especially when youâre alone onstage. âItâs unfortunate that [the play] is in this context, but you canât ignore it,â said Whitbread. âBecause of the way itâs written, itâs easier to separate myself from the words. Itâs affecting, but because of the writing, not the context.â
Whitbread is a Winnipegger, but now lives in Toronto, where she just performed in 4.48 (the last performance was Saturday) at the Fringe there. She was last seen in the River City as part of the ensemble in the WSO and Rainbow Stageâs South Pacific in April. She said doing a one-woman show is a little different. âIn some ways, itâs really terrifying. If I forget a line, no other actor can save me. I canât look over and be like, âgive me the line!â But itâs also really freeing. If I forget a line, I can go to the next part of the script I know. Iâm in control of this.â
The staging is different in Winnipeg than it was in Toronto â with a venue change comes a staging change. The audience will be seated in a horseshoe-shape around Whitbread. âIâm speaking directly to the audience, I can see the audience,â she said. Itâs vulnerable being up there alone. âI had to learn to be comfortable with having silence, and be comfortable with having laughter. I have to let them enjoy it, let myself enjoy it.â
I asked her, straight up: why should people come to this likely-depressing show when they could go see some improver make poop jokes instead? âItâs a really important â small, but important â discussion on mental illness and how itâs portrayed,â she said. âIt portrays mental illness in a really personal way, an open and blunt way. It doesnât dance around anything.â Thatâs a conversation worth having. âThis is what it could be like,â for someone with mental illness, she said. But mental health never fits a specific mold. âNot everyone will identify with it, and thatâs okay.â
âSarah Kane had such a revolutionary idea of what theatre should look like,â she said. âIf people want to challenge themselves, this is a good show to see.â
Theatre by the Riverâs 4.48 Psychosis opens on Wednesday, July 19, and runs throughout the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival, playing venue #11, Red River College. Check out showtimes and a venue map here. See you at the Fringe.
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