'48 Thoughts Per Minute' - Conversation Starter

48 Thoughts Per Minute is the latest devised verbatim production from The Paper Birds, currently in creation. It’s an inventive, laugh-out-loud celebration of the many ways we think and experience the world inside our heads.

Fast-paced, funny, and hugely relatable, 48 Thoughts Per Minute is developed in collaboration with current UK comedians. The show blends new writing by our Co-Directors Jemma and Kylie, with verbatim testimonies from a diverse range of people living across the UK; from exercise clubs, to mother and baby groups, elders’ dance groups, and mindfulness groups, to name a few.

It's been claimed that the average human brain generates 48 thoughts per minute, translating to approximately 70,000 thoughts per day.* Through this show we invite our audience to reflect on the private space inside each of their heads, capturing the hilarious, vivid and sometimes intrusive thoughts that shape our inner worlds.

Audiences interact live during the performance using their smartphones: texting in thoughts and reactions in real time, becoming part of a unique collective ‘brain’ each performance.

From mirror-based self-reflection, to 3am catastrophising, 48 Thoughts Per Minute is a high-speed journey through one woman’s unstoppable cascade of thoughts. Staging, sound, and visuals shift as rapidly as her mind, leaping through memories, imagination and internal conversations at breakneck speed.

The theatre is transformed into a human brain, using set design and cinematic film to reflect its inner workings. Collaborating with a team of leading designers, academics and neuroscientists, the show explores our human experience: how we navigate the world around us, move between logic and emotion, process memories, and respond to all that life throws at us. The show will touring from January 2027. Go to www.thepaperbirds.com for more information

*From The American Journal of Medicine.