The audience is herded into a large room surrounded by plastic sheeting in The Hypocrites production of “4.48 Psychosis, ” currently at the Steppenwolf Garage. The implied message is clear; the goings-on inside will bring to mind a messy but well-planned murder. You, the gawking spectator, are safe; that woman crouched by the bed isn’t. Written five years ago by the British playwright Sarah Kane, it is a frantic, freaky, scribbly screed wherein a young woman’s will to die becomes a dominant, instinctual quest. The form is more diary-like than narrative, and in terms of its content, “Psychosis” is no hypothetical experiment; Kane hanged herself, at twenty-eight, not long after finishing the play, which gives the work a gruesome sort of heft and voyeuristic appeal. How do you conjure a thoroughly depressed, suicidal state of mind on stage? How do you make it tangible? Director Sean Graney has constructed a kind of surround-sound diorama in which you, the audience, stand and bear witness (the running time is just over an hour) to the demise of this unnamed narrator. Graney has punched the stream-of-consciousness dialogue with Technicolor images that reflect the odd details of dreams and heighten the script’s gallows humor. It is thoroughly engaging in that regard; for a show about suicide, one that actually depicts suicide, this production is remarkably easy to swallow—which is perhaps its biggest flaw. For all its inventiveness (the staging includes two “rest” breaks in which the actors break character, eat from an orange, wink at the audience), the experience leaves little, if any, emotional residue. (Nina Metz)
Let’s See Together: A Review of "Choir Boy" at Steppenwolf Theatre Among other compelling reasons to see "Choir Boy" is the power and musicianship on songs sung by the young men who play the students in the choir at the Black, Christian Charles R. Drew School for Boys.
Buggin’ Out: A Review of Bug at Steppenwolf Theatre The audience is the fly on the wall of a dingy Oklahoma hotel room where Agnes White is taking refuge from her recently released, abusive ex-husband Jerry.
Walk Beside Me: A Review of Steppenwolf's "Chlorine Sky" The moving production is author Mahogany L. Browne’s adaptation of her verse novel. Sky, is the thoughtful, athletic, resilient character at the center of this young-adult play.
