Insane In The Brain (Tour – Salford)

Ken Kasey‘s novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest has been adapted into an Oscar Winning film starring Jack Nicholson and later Dale Wasserman‘s stage production which hit the West End featuring Christian Slater and a bunch of comedians.

Now comes a street dance version of this celebrated and poignant tale of forced insanity, which although fails to move you as much as the source material, certainly packs a punch in every other department and provides the audience with an alternative to the over hyped and empty X Factor on a Saturday night.

When this inventive production begins, you find yourself cringing when Nurse Ratchett (Lettitia Simpson) addresses the patients, as the dialogue is leaden and slows the narrative to a halt, as like High School Musical, you just want the kids to dance.

Luckily, you do not have to wait long and once you start to hear the music of Missy Elliot, Cypress Hill and Dizzee Rascal, the dancers rarely stop to take a breath. The fantasic thing about the choreography is that it incorporates street dance, ballet and disco; gently sending up the likes of Fame and every hip hop video that you have seen.

If the production has a fault, it’s that it fails to do complete justice to the potentially moving material, as often narrative drive is replaced by disconnected dance pieces. So much so, that often the original piece is lost in the mix. But, with so much energy, humour and marvelous movement on display, only the downright miserable will be complaining.

Standout scenes include the patients scaling a dance wall, a montage featuring each dancer doing a solo on their beds – complimented by Palle Palme‘s lush lighting, and a homage to the 1980’s complete with leg warmers and the famous Flashdance water sequence, which raises a wry smile for any fans of the cheesey film.

It is difficult to single out any particular dancer as they are all incredibly athletic, bringing out the humour, as well as the cheekiness. But, for sheer chutzpah and her scene stealing during the Jane Fonda style workout towards the end, Bianca Fernstrom wins hands down.

Many of the audience were on their feet at the end of this frenetically paced and furiously funny dance piece. If it returns to the region, it is well worth seeing because Insane In The Brain makes for an exhilarating night out.