THOMAS FORD

DESIGN CONCEPT

For this production of Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis, we wanted to keep the world as realistic as possible. We wanted the main character's depression story to be relateable and something that could happen to anyone. There are times when the abstract language and imagery of the script makes this more difficult, but by determining a setting for every scene in the script we were able to attach a chord of reality to all of these moments. Sound worked closely with lighting to determine what each of these settings (a bedroom/living room, a hospital room, a doctor's office, and a classroom) should look and sound like.

To try to capture how the main character feels in some of her more "heightened" or manic moments, sound deviated from the sense of realism while still only using realistic sounds. Typical sounds, like a dial tone or an answering machine, would be unpleasantly long, or the tone would become increasing louder to the point where it was abrasive. In another scene, the main character simply browsing the internet became very overwhelming for her as music and multiple youtube and news videos playing simultaneously intensified to an overwhelming cacophony of troubling news clips that overwhelms her and triggers a panic attack.

SYSTEM DESIGN