Sensory Guide for 4.48 Psychosis

From the beginning

Sound: Soft instrumental music plays. A drum is repetitively hit throughout. The soft instrumental music sounds like the music you might hear while being asked to hold on a phone-line.

Action: The performer leans against the chair and wall as though in distress.

At approximately 1-2 minutes

Sound: The off-stage orchestra play alongside the onstage musicians, with music that is building in intensity and loudness. It abruptly stops.

Action: The performer seems to be struggling to breathe. The music and orchestra stop, and the performer is heavily breathing as though they are having a panic attack.

At approximately 3 minutes

Action: Many performers come into the room on stage from different doors.

At approximately 5 minutes

Content: The performers sing and speak about different negative feelings they have towards themselves and others. One performer says 'I would like to kill myself'. Some performers talk about death and mortality.

At approximately 6 minutes

Content: A performer discusses hanging themselves. They also discuss the negative associations that society has towards people experiencing the challenges of mental health.

At approximately 7 minutes

Sound: The music suddenly shifts in tempo, pitch and volume. It suddenly picks up to a frantic melody

Lighting: Large, quick-moving numbers are projected onto the stage. This creates a flashing sensation.

At approximately 8 minutes

Sound: There are intermittent buzzing sounds throughout.

Action: A performer collapses on the floor and is held up by the others.

At approximately 8 minutes

Sound and Action: A performer screams.

At approximately 9 minutes

Sound and Action: Music quietens as all performers pick themselves from the floor.

At approximately 10 minutes

Action: The main performer begins to sing but another performer places their hand in front of their mouth from behind, muffling their singing.

At approximately 11 minutes

Sound: The music becomes frantic and fast.

At approximately 11-13 minutes

Content: Extremely strong language is used throughout.

At approximately 14 minutes

Sound: The music fades and is replaced by the instrumental hold-music. A drum and tinny sounding percussion is used as phrases flash brightly on the walls of the room on the stage.

Content: These phrases are describing different methods of self-harm and suicide and form an unspoken conversation happening between two performers where one describes their methods of self-harm and the other raises concerns, advice or judgements. This conversation format is used throughout.

At approximately 17 minutes

Sound: Frantic and loud music rises and falls, replaced with eerie sounding melody.

At approximately 20 minutes

Sound: Music becomes loud and jarring with sharp tones.

At approximately 21 minutes

Lighting: Brightly lit letters flash across stage.

Action: All performers are pulling at the main performer from one side of the stage and they struggle. A performer screams and knocks over a chair.

At approximately 23 minutes for around 3 minutes

Sound: Loud white noise sounds are heard intermittently. These lasts for approximately 6 seconds, followed by a bright flash. This is repeated at 23 minutes 28 seconds in, 24 minutes 14 seconds in, 24 minutes 45 seconds in and 25 minutes 38 seconds in.

At approximately 26 minutes

Sound: Fairground music begins to play.

Content: All performers use extremely strong language as they swear at each other, call each other names and start fighting. One performer hits another around the face. This is part of the performance, has been rehearsed safely and no performers have been harmed.

Sound: On-hold music returns.

At approximately 28 minutes

Content: Phrases and sentences about self-harm by cutting are projected on the wall and around the room on stage. There are also references to society’s negative perception of mental health challenges.

At approximately 34 minutes

Sound: The tempo of the music changes dramatically with droning orchestral sounds layered over the aria being sung.

At approximately 35 minutes

Sound: The on-hold music returns, relatively quietly. A member of the orchestra uses a saw to make a harsh percussion sound intermittently. This is followed by a drum being beat several times.  

Content: The phrases about self-harm, challenges of clinical mental health and suicide continue to be projected around the rooms walls in conversation with one another.

At approximately 37 minutes

Sound: A loud whistle is blown which continues for approximately 15 seconds. This is followed by the drum and saw being played at the same time.

At approximately 40-42 minutes

Action: All performers fight on stage – one puts their hands around anothers throat.

Lighting: A light flashes and all lights in the room go off apart from the lit doorway.

Action: All performers fall to the ground, with laboured breathing.

Sound: They all take a big, loud breath of air in at the same time as a drum is hit. This is followed by drone-sounding music.

At approximately 43 minutes

Content: There is spoken word about symptoms of clinical mental health, medications, side effects, self-harm, psychosis, paranoia, suicidal ideation, overdose and attempts at suicide. This is also projected onto the wall.

At approximately 50 minutes

Action: The performers start to wrestle and fight one another again. One performs a strangling action on the other. They fall to the floor gasping for breath. They wrestle to the floor, with the performer who is being strangled appearing to fight back. This is part of the performance, has been rehearsed safely and no performers have been harmed. They roll away, gasping for breath and then embrace in a tender hug.

Sound: The music is loud and jarring.

At approximately 52 minutes

Content: A series of statements referring to historic atrocities, including the Holocaust and the Cambodian Genocide, are shouted out and projected onto the wall. A statements referring to child sexual abuse is also shouted out and projected onto the wall. This moment in the production reflects on the characters clinical psychosis and delusions and how troubling they find these feelings and do not reflect the characters true beliefs or actions.

At approximately 1 hour

Content: There is spoken word discussing the anguish the character feels at 4.48am each morning when they wake and experience the lucidity.

At approximately 1 hour 2 minutes for 3 minutes

Sound: The performer screams and shouts as the orchestra bangs their instruments. The music becomes extremely noisy and layered with different sounds which are played intermittently for approximately 3 minutes.

At approximately 1 hour 6 minutes

Lighting: Large, brightly-lit numbers are projected onto the stage. The numbers change randomly, counting down.

Sound: The music is loud and frantic.

At approximately 1 hour 15 minutes

Content: One of the performers refers to taking care of people with clinical depression as not "sane” and how they need a break from their work, referring to both the emotional nature of the work of psychiatrists, doctors and nurses as well as society's views about people who experience the challenges of mental health. This is sung and projected on the wall.

At approximately 1 hour 22 minutes

Content: There is spoken word about suicide and some of the methods a person could use to die by or attempt to die by suicide, including drug overdose, cutting wrists and hanging.

At approximately 1 hour 30 minutes

Lighting: A full blackout of the stage marks the end of the performance.

Action: The performers will return to the stage to bow for audience applause. The orchestra will stand on the raise platform above the room on stage for applause.