The Rebirth of New Tragedy in British Theatre with an Emphasis on  4.48 Psychose's by Sarah Kane

This paper figures the new principle for British modern theatre in particular, in the frame of ‘post-traumatic’ history which will free all repressed traumas of history and community that is neglected by them, and be taken back to them with inherent violence of their images. Last decade of 20th century began with the harsh and brutal performances of the group of opposing young directors whom had a problem with their generation. Categorizing them in the same group, Aleks Sierz named them ‘in-yer-face theatre’. This much of violence on the stage exemplified deep traumas which were buried in the traumatic history. Sarah Kane one of the main figures of this group fulfilled the aim of political theatre by the process I borrowed from recent psychoanalytic researches. She wrote her fifth and last play, ‘4.48 psychoses’, just before her suicide in 1999. Mentioning reinterpretation of traumas after the mid 20th century, I focus on Judith Herman and Cathy Caruth’s surveys, as the members of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) studies. This group has posed new definition for traumatic dreams and memories by devising the term ‘traumatic reenactment’. The victim who suffers from these kinds of dreams and memories is lack of drama. It seems part of him has died and everything has stood in that horrible moment which belongs to the past. In this sense, this singular possession by the past extends beyond the bounds of a marginal pathology and has become a central characteristic of the survivor experience of our time. Yet, what is particularly striking in this singular experience is that its insistent reenactments of the past do not simply serve as testimony to an event, but may also, paradoxically enough, bear witness to a past that was never fully experienced as it occurred. Curing these traumas, we both urgently demand historical experience. By reinterpretation of new tragedy in the frame of post-dramatic theatre we could access to a traumatic history. The relationship between community and individuals is inseparable and there will be the unity and tension simultaneously between them. By this relation the spectator acts as a witness and even victim since at the same time he was the observant of his own trauma and others too. So, the entire scene becomes traumatic reenactment of a singular traumatic event which has been fixed in the specific moment of past. By reenacting the past, each actor or spectator stays in the liminal state, as a ritual performance. This moment is the moment of pure consciousness. This will be happened by transgressing the boundaries between the Real and reality, as Jacque Lacan mentioned. Thus, this will be the reborn of the new tragedy which is happened as a tension between two senses: terror/ need. As a result, in the explosion of the Real the missing memory is transformed to narrative language which moves both groups to the shared memory, and this is the aim of political theatre. ‘4.48 psychoses’ can be an appropriate scene for representing this kind of tragedy.