This work is the last play by Sarah Kane, the controversial contemporary British playwright, who died aged 28 in February 1999. A single voice, dragged through therapy and endless medication, reveals the true experience of clinical depression.

'Is it possible, asks the text, for a person to be born in the wrong body, at the wrong time? Yes, is the answer. But sometimes, from that agony, a great soul can wrestle something as beautiful and true as this remarkable play.' Scotsman (4 November 2008) '4.48 Psychosis still feels immediate, intimate and raw - if anything, the onward march of our confessional culture has made it feel even more contemporary.' Aleks Sierz, Tribune, 7.8.09 'Sarah Kane's last play, written before she killed herself 10 years ago, has been described as a theatrical suicide note. That sells it short. It is so much more: a manifesto for living by one about to die.' Lyn Gardner, Guardian, 25.7.09 'an extraordinary exploration of the human condition, and of psychological disintegration in particular. It exposes the terrifying clarity of the acute depressive's unblinking certainty that their existence is intolerable and can never be otherwise; the play's title refers to Kane's early morning moments of such cruel lucidity.' Sam Marlowe, The Times, 28.7.09 'Kane's fractured poetry, lacerating in its anguish and devil-driven dark humour' Sam Marlowe, The Times, 28.7.09

This work is the last play by Sarah Kane, the controversial contemporary British playwright, who died aged 28 in February 1999. A single voice, dragged through therapy and endless medication, reveals the true experience of clinical depression.

The Modern Plays series is world famous for containing the work of many of the finest contemporary playwrights. Established in 1959 with the publication of Shelagh Delaney's A Taste of Honey, it remains a series synonymous with the very best in new writing for the stage. Today it features over 1000 plays and continues to grow alongside the staging of new work.