Sane New World

Harrogate Theatre 

4/5

LIFE-CHANGING events can come from the most unlikely places. 

One such moment for Ruby Wax came when she found herself the poster girl for mental illness. Turning Time To Change’s poster campaign into a personal PR campaign, she wrote a show called Losing It that examined her depressive episodes and which she toured around mental institutions. 

Having completed an MA from Oxford University in Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy, the comedian has now produced Sane New World — a show for “the rest of you” — that seeks to address why so many people can’t cope with the 21st century. It explores the modern disease of “busyness” and the way in which our internal critics can send us mad. 

Based on her book of the same name, Sane New World balances pop science with wit as it explores how the mind can be tamed, with explanations of neuroscience offset by neat one-liners — bipolar patients “laughed and cried” at her last show — comedic demonstrations of yoga poses and humorously scratchy slide illustrations. 

These gags help to bring into sharper focus Wax’s hard scientific facts, such as predictions that by 2020 stress will be a major killer in the US, reports that the brain can be remoulded through neuroplasticity — “Gloria Gaynor was wrong when she sang ‘I am what I am’’’ along with a serious commitment to practising mindfulness: “You don’t get a six-pack with one sit up.” 

The mission to explain sees her ending the first half with a short mindfulness exercise. There’s doubt over how much this benefits audience members but her overriding theme — a plea for people to slow down and calm their brains — still comes through strong and clear. 

This is especially true during the short Q&A which is the second part of the night, during which Wax gets to reprise her talk-show persona. Showing off her quick wit she also has the honesty to admit that mindfulness won’t work for everyone, or that not everyone is ready to accept the need to slow down. 

She closes with a humorously interpretive dance to Shakira’s La La La that’s played alongside footage of Thamsanqa Jantjie’s fake signing at Nelson Mandela’s funeral. 

It’s a superficially throwaway moment that’s tinged with poignancy given that Jantjie, a schizophrenic, became a comedy punchline while also opening up the public debate around mental illness. 

Tours until October 28, details: rubywax.net