Audience And Self-Accusation: Play Analysis

Sarah Kane in her play “4.48 Psychosis” and Peter Handke in “Offending the Audience and Self- Accusation” challenge the role of the spectator and their treatment. Both writers encourage the audience to actively question the action that unfolds in their sight. Sarah Kane’s fragmented structure of the play; a combination of varying textual forms such as songs, numbers and self- reflective speeches forces the spectator to create meaning in the confusion. The play is a canvas and the spectator holds the creative power. The texts position the spectators as active voices that critically question the , therefore one becomes a co-creator of the meaning. Handke creates pressure to act upon the contradicting statements produced by the speakers, therefore …show more content…
The technique diminishes any expectations, continuously unsettling one’s fragile mind. One begins to search for an escape from the hostile environment created by Handke’s compelling text. He persists with the idea that the spectator is not “simply taken for granted” (Handke,19) but equally highlights that “you have no destiny”(Handke,18). One is subjected to belief they have a purpose but simultaneously made believe the speaker is still in positioned as the superior. The pattern created by Peter Handke takes a form of instructions, a step by step guide to redeeming oneself rather than becoming mastered by a “magic cycle” (Handke,16) that the theatre usually offers. The chosen technique is reversed psychology, a technique that persuades one to become the opposite of what is stated. The relationship formed between the spectator and the speak-ins does not console but aims to unsettle. Furthermore, Handke’s speak-ins define the positon of the spectators to break the “masquerade”(Handke,23) of illusions. Therefore, the abusive treatment aims to renovate; it is a renovation of one’s role within the theatrical world. In an essay by Artur Joseph (57) “Nauseated by Language: From an Interview with Peter Handke”, Handke provides an insight behind the concept. The author reveals his desire was “to use words to encircle the audience so they'd want to free themselves by heckling”(Joseph,57). The encirclement Handke refers to takes place in stages; one is enclosed in a space with no set of rules, no fixed time or structure and then stripped away of comfort. Predominantly, stripping one away from any qualities they are familiar and most importantly any expectations a door to an endless creative potential is opened. Metaphorically speaking, the spectator is “naked” and