What do you do if you have a text without assigned parts that is part prose poetry, part psychobabble, and part lovingly-crafted suicide note from a gifted and tormented playwright like Sarah Kane? If you happen to live in the Valley, you give it to Ron May and Stray Cat Theatre to see what they can make of it. In the case of Kane’s final work 4:48 Psychosis, what they have made is a highly charged work of art that is the best ensemble piece of the season I’ve seen thusfar. May and his trio of actresses (Vanessa Kiernan, Kerry McCue, and Miranda Zent) have given voice, movement, and presence to this heartbreaking and soul wracking play script.

Working together, May and the actresses have made a surprisingly understandable framework of the chronicling of this woman’s psychotic breakdown. By dividing up the lines with a logical splitting of this poor young woman into three parts and assigning them based on their intent, May and his crew are able to give more meaning and understandability to this soulful scream.

May’s division of work and ever-shifting stage pictures keep the depressive qualities of the work from completely swamping us. That’s not to say we don’t feel uncomfortable, for we most certainly do. From the pre-show light show to the triangle of faces at the end, this evening is meant to make you feel uncomfortable, raw, and even a little sick. But we can almost comprehend a script that on paper seems overwhelming and impenetrable.

Kiernan, McCue, and Zent are locked together in a way only the bravest and most talented of actresses can be. They are in lockstep with their characters, with themselves, and with each other. They help us to understand May’s vision by embodying their shard of this broken mirror. Their voices, their bodies, their very presences are tools and weapons which they use to deadly effect. It’s impossible to divide them and examine their performances: they are so conjoined despite their separation; they work perfectly as a unit.

Tamar Geist’s lighting and Benjamin Monrad’s sound design set tones and moods amazingly well, while David J. Castellano’s spare set and costumes couldn’t be any more appropriate.