Brainstorm
Brainstorm
Brainstorm
Brainstorm
29 March - 2 April 2016, National Theatre | November 2015, BBC iPlayer | 22 - 25 July 2015, National Theatre | 8 - 11 January 2015, The Park Theatre
You say to me...
Your brain is broken.
It's like an adult's brain that doesn't work properly.
A fearless company of teenagers investigate the workings of the adolescent brain.
Created with cognitive neuroscientist Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore and drawing upon the life experiences of the cast, Brainstorm is a thrilling exploration of the most frustrating, chaotic and exhilarating changes that will ever happen to us.
Brainstorm was created and performed by Michael Adewale, Doyin Ajiboye, Sama Aunallah, Yaamin Chowdhury, Jack Hughes, Noah Landoni, Dylan Lubo, Gracia Kayindo, Romeo Mika, Kassius Nelson, Tyrel Phan, Serafina Willow and Segen Yosife.
Created by Ned Glasier, Emily Lim and the company
Design
Charlie Damigos
Lighting
Jo Town
Sound
Elena Pena
Movement
Daragh O'Leary
Consultant Neuroscientists
Sarah Jayne Blakemore & Kate Mills
Production Photography
Press
"This is a very cunningly put together piece, drawing with unflinching honesty on material excavated from the young people’s own lives ... and capturing the hormonal rush and wild mood swings of teenage existence."
**** Lyn Gardner, The Guardian
"A tour of the chaotic limbic system — a rush of risk-taking, caution-free chemicals – gets the audience joining in the truth-telling games with raucous abandon... yet the wires that are really getting crossed are those with worried parents, and it’s the white-hot pain of each bedroom confrontation that brands the heart."
***** Kate Maltby, The Times
"By the end of this beautifully conceived show, we see talent, and passion, and a group of young people trying their best to make sense of the world, while their constantly developing brains hurry to keep up."
**** Laura Barnett, The Observer
"The group don't just remind us what it is like to be young — they actively make us want to return to that time. Full of energy and more than a little cheeky humour, their wisdom and self-confidence is impressively beyond their years."
Finally watched #ICTBrainstorm on iPlayer. Cried in my kitchen! #YouDontKnowItYet but young people will inspire you & change your life. #emo
— Em (@Em_Chappers) December 10, 2015
Heard myself as a parent tonight. Saw myself as a teenager. Stormingly honest & playful work from @ICTheatre @NationalTheatre #ICTbrainstorm
— Tim Crouch (@timcrouch1964) July 22, 2015
Academic Study
A research paper by Robert Blakey at the University of Oxford has shown that watching Brainstorm affected audience attitudes to youth crime.
Robert Blakey, the study’s author and a DPhil student at Oxford’s Centre for Criminology, said: ‘We all have this feeling that when we resist an impulse, we are deciding to resist that impulse – not our brain, but this mental sense of me that makes decisions free from biological constraints. But neuroscience suggests this just isn’t true. We are always affected by our brain – in every decision that we make.
‘After learning about the science of the teenage brain, the public may change how it views teenage offenders. And that’s exactly what happened after these theatre goers watched Brainstorm. They changed how they viewed teenage offenders.'
New Page
New Page
Brainstorm Blueprint
“A profound experience for my students … our parents said it was the most thought-provoking and moving play they’d ever experienced”
Steven Slaughter, Rosslyn Academy, Kenya
Brainstorm Blueprint
“A profound experience for my students … our parents said it was the most thought-provoking and moving play they’d ever experienced”
Steven Slaughter, Rosslyn Academy, Kenya
Youth theatres and school groups across the world have changed the way their audiences think about teenagers by producing their own version of our five star hit play, Brainstorm.
Our “beautifully conceived show” (The Observer) was a sell-out success at London’s National Theatre and seen by thousands on the BBC.
We wanted everyone to be able to make their own Brainstorm, so we published it as a Blueprint - a devising guide and script template that enables any group to make their own version of the play. The play includes a forward by Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, who supported the creation of Brainstorm as a consultant neuroscientist, alongside Dr Kate Mills.
Hundreds of teenagers - in the UK, USA, Kenya, Australia, Slovenia, Hong Kong and many other countries - have already made their own version of Brainstorm. The impact on them and their audiences has been profound.
Creating the play is straightforward and richly rewarding for teachers, directors and young people alike. It can be simply staged and flexibly cast. There are opportunities for young people to write, design and support the show technically.
The Blueprint and script template make it a project suitable for directors, teachers and groups of young people with limited devising experience.
“I have been working at this school for ten years and Brainstorm is the production I am most proud of.
It is such a powerful vehicle for the expression of youth. It played such a vital role in opening essential conversations and enabling the students to feel a greater sense of validity in themselves”
Brainstorm: The Original Playscript
And a Blueprint for Creating Your Own Production
by Ned Glasier, Emily Lim and Company Three
Nick Hern Books | Paperback, 96 pages | ISBN: 9781848425873 | Publication Date: 15 Dec 2016 | Size: 198mm x 129mm
Cast: variable - flexible casting
Staging: can be simply staged
Amateur rights performance fee: £60 per performance (plus VAT where applicable)
Brainstorm Production photos from around the world
Resources and other information
Blog: Putting teenagers’ brains centre stage
Ned Glasier and Sarah Jayne Blakemore
Blog: Staging our own Brainstorm
Steven Slaughter, Rosslyn Academy Kenya
