BRING together an experimental hip-hop band with a theatre company for disabled artists, take them to the Moulin Rouge in 19-century Paris, and you have the makings of one of the most imaginative productions on stage in Scotland so far this year.

 

The story of French dancer Jane Avril, who went on to become the muse of painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, has been brought to life by Glasgow-based Birds of Paradise Theatre Company, producers of the acclaimed The Man Who Lived Twice and Wendy Hoose.

"It's about a young woman who grows up in poverty, is abused and prostituted and gets a mental health condition," says director Garry Robson of Crazy Jane, which was written by Nicola McCartney.

"Jane goes into Saltpetriere, an asylum in Paris for women, but comes out the other end and finds herself and her identity as a dancer.

"She lives to a ripe old age in her 80s and finally passes on in the middle of the Second World War. It's a story about finding yourself, what makes you tick.

"As a woman she is continually objectified, she is abused and prostituted. Then she is under the gaze of men in the asylum, as there were very few female doctors. And she goes to the Moulin Rouge where again she is under the gaze of men.

"Eventually she finds herself and her own strengths and becomes an independent woman."

Garry says he found Jane's story irresistible: a unique dancer who forged her style in the hell on earth that was Saltpetriere asylum.

The theatre director had been given a book on the institution and read about the pioneering work of Dr Jean-Martin Charcot in the middle of the 19th century, who looked at mental illness and treated it as a physical condition.

"He used all sorts of treatments like hypnotism and electrotherapy. Photography was just coming in and they were very big on it in the early days, they thought it could be a therapeutic tool," he explains.

"So he took pictures of women in the asylum who were called hysterics. It was the pictures that first attracted me, they were appalling but fascinating at the same time. I thought I must do something with them as a show."

By chance, Garry went to an exhibition of the work of Toulouse-Lautrec and saw paintings of Jane Avril, a dancer at the Moulin Rouge. She had been locked up in Saltpetriere as a child after developing St Vitus' Dance, a disorder of the nervous system.

That is where she learned to dance.

"She had a really unique way of dancing that totally inspired and completely changed the face of modern dance in Paris," says Garry.

"Jane said it was partly her condition that led her to that, she was a fascinating woman."

"I worked with Nicola McCartney on a piece I had written a few years ago and asked if she'd be interested in writing it and it went from there."

Award-winning director Garry, acclaimed as an innovator in disability art, believes Jane's story is a very modern one, specifically with connections to mental health issues. Its world premiere is at the Tron Theatre, Glasgow, as part of Mayfesto, before touring Scotland.

"I think although mental health has made great steps forward over the past few decades, you are still stigmatised to be involved in any way with mental health services," he considers.

"Things like depression and all sorts of states of mental health are at almost epidemic proportions, they are very common now in our society and we're still not quite sure how to deal with them.

"This is very much a show for now, particularly for young people who still have issues with identity, who they are and the pressures of what they're supposed to be. So it felt to me like a very relevant story for today."

He says he was keen not to make a biopic. The production is a combination of theatre, dance and a razor-sharp score by Glasgow band Hector Bizerk, that is very much about today as Paris in the 1800s.

"I knew I needed to nail the music in a particular way and I have been very struck with Hector Bizerk, I love their stuff," says Garry.

"They have done a fantastic soundtrack and it is pivotal to the piece; it drives it. It brings it more up to date.

"Louie raps his in a Glaswegian voice. The lyrics are this amazing mix of describing the period aspects of the show but there are also very modern sentiments."

The cast features Rachel Drazek as the young Jane and Pauline Knowles as the dancer in her later years. It also includes Caroline Parker, one of the foremost deaf actresses in the UK, who will sign for the show.

"When Robert Softley Gale and I took over Birds of Paradise two years ago we looked at things we felt the company needed," adds Garry.

" The first show was Wendy Hoose, a two-hander, which was a big success. So we felt our next show should move away from that and be a slightly bigger show.

"Because this was a piece about a dancer I knew I wanted to incorporate movement in quite a big way, and music.

"It gives the range of what Birds of Paradise want to produce for Scottish theatre and I think that's the key."

Crazy Jane, Tron Theatre, Glasgow, May 28-30. Visit www.tron.co.uk