The reviews are in for 4.48 Psychosis, Philip Venables’ opera on Sarah Kane’s final play, which the Royal Opera revived on 17 October in the Linbury Theatre at the Royal Opera House. Ted Huffman’s production was first seen at the Lyric Hammersmith in 2016, and this tenth-anniversary revival is the first time it has been staged in the company’s own house. Six singers led by Jacquelyn Stucker, with the Chroma Ensemble under Naomi Woo, have drawn four stars or better from every critic who gave a rating, and Stucker’s performance and the percussion that punctuates the scenes between patient and doctor are the points they return to most. Where they part company is on the ending and on how far the music steers the audience’s response.
The verdict: six reviews in so far. Five carry a rating and all are four stars or better: four four-star notices and four and a half from London Unattached, an average of 4.1 out of 5. Every critic we could read in full credits the percussion that drives the doctor-and-patient exchanges, and three single out Jacquelyn Stucker. The run is short, closing on 25 October, and this roundup will be updated as further reviews arrive.
What are critics saying about 4.48 Psychosis?
London Unattached
“A Difficult but Deeply Rewarding Watch”
Reviewer: Saskia Bibb
Saskia Bibb gives the revival the warmest notice so far, and her highest praise goes to the lead.
“Jacquelyn Stucker, as the protagonist, is sensational. She is an extraordinary actor, deeply inhabiting the character…”
She finds the whole evening humane rather than sensational: the most explicit exchanges are beaten out by two percussionists while the words appear on screen, a device she calls ingenious, and she credits Naomi Woo and the Chroma Ensemble with bite and discipline. Her reservations are small ones. The scuffles between the protagonist and her other selves look under-rehearsed, and the supporting singers take a while to match Stucker.
The Times
“Sarah Kane’s last play terrifies as an opera”
Reviewer: Richard Morrison
Richard Morrison argues that the score does not try to deepen the despair of the play, which could hardly be done, but makes a text written without stage directions or named speakers far easier to follow.
“this is an unremittingly terrifying show that leaves you uncertain as to whether applause is even appropriate”
He picks out Jacquelyn Stucker’s performance, the Chroma Ensemble under Naomi Woo and the two percussionists who hammer out the arguments between patient and psychiatrist, and he sets the closing scene beside Dido’s lament for its power to haunt. He is left in no doubt that the evening is truthful as well as frightening.
The Guardian
“a dazzling, harrowing opera worthy of Sarah Kane’s furious writing”
Reviewer: Clive Paget
Clive Paget admires the way Philip Venables sets almost all of Kane’s text, overlapping the voices in a manner the spoken play cannot, and he praises the precision of all six singers and the urgency of Naomi Woo’s conducting.
“Stucker stands out as the deeply troubled protagonist in a searingly honest and frequently heart-rending performance.”
His one real doubt is structural. Tying so much of the emotion to the six-voice chorus, he suggests, settles how the audience should feel and blunts some of the play’s capacity to shock, even though the evening remains a harrowing one.
BroadwayWorld
Reviewer: Franco Milazzo
Franco Milazzo welcomes the opera to Covent Garden ten years after its premiere and finds the combination of Ted Huffman’s fluid direction and Hannah Clark’s design an immersive one.
“The way that the dialogues between patient and doctor are punctuated is a true masterstroke from Venables.”
He reserves particular credit for the drummer and the hammer-and-saw player who give the clinical exchanges their violence, for Pierre Martin’s video and for the Chroma Ensemble under Naomi Woo. The fault he names, and calls a minor one, is the final image, which he thinks ties the work too closely to the circumstances of Kane’s own death.
Production photographs of the 2016 staging by Stephen Cummiskey, © ROH.
Also reviewed by: The Stage (Inge Kjemtrup, four stars, “Riveting and unforgettable”) and Opera Now (“Venables: 4.48 Psychosis at The Royal Opera”), whose reviews we could not read in full.
Opera has had a busy week with the critics: our roundup of Angel’s Bone at the London Coliseum gathers the notices for English National Opera’s staging across town, and the reviews of Caryl Churchill’s Triumph at the Almeida Theatre are collected here too.
4.48 Psychosis runs in the Linbury Theatre at the Royal Opera House until 25 October 2026.
For more information, visit the official website.
