48 Thoughts Per Minute

A fast-paced, hilarious and chaotic show, about all the things we think but do not say.

Some scientists believe that your brain fires off about 48 thoughts per minute*, that's 70,000 a day. So what exactly are we thinking about? The Paper Birds, UK leaders in devised verbatim theatre, are back with their most inventive, laugh-out-loud show yet, celebrating the ways we think.

Set over the course of three minutes as one woman awaits some potentially life-changing news, 48 Thoughts Per Minute is a fast-paced, joyfully chaotic and warmly relatable story about the relationship we all have with ourselves. From mirror-based self-reflection, 3am catastrophising and memories that arrive uninvited, it’s a high-speed journey through four different characters’ minds and one woman’s unstoppable cascade of thoughts as she awaits her fate.  

Co-created with the celebrated comedian Jessica Fostekew (Iconic Breath, The Guilty Feminist and Hoovering), the show blends sharp new writing with verbatim stories from real people from across the UK. Working with a team of academic experts and designers, this is a show set inside a head where emotions, memories and chemical reactions all meet. And you’ll have the option to join in too, sharing your own thoughts via your smartphone.

Equal parts belly laughs and gentle gut-punch, 48 Thoughts asks us to consider how we approach the world around us whilst navigating the most important relationship we have, the one with ourselves.  

*From The American Journal of Medicine.

Written by The Paper Birds & Jessica Fostekew  
Co-produced by New Wolsey Theatre. Co-commissioned by Corn Exchange Newbury and Warwick Arts Centre