Mind games in 4.48 Psychosis

Fiona Mountford, EVENING STANDARD

Rating: **** 

Triumph: 4.48 Psychosis

I've insufficient space adequately to praise TR Warszawa's Polish-language production of 4.48 Psychosis, that primal howl of suicidal despair from the late Sarah Kane.

Director Grzegorz Jarzyna shapes the formless prose poem into something raw, not to mention echoing Kane's own sad story, based around a terrifyingly intense performance from Magdalena Cielecka.

Cielecka moves like a robot, scuffing about with her hands clenched into the waistband of her trousers, before ending up all but naked and covered in bandages and blood. It's visceral, compelling and peculiarly cathartic.