1st-ever Staging Of The Manic Monologues In Aotearoa To Be Brought To The Meteor Stage For Mental Health Awareness Week

Carving in Ice Theatre returns to The Meteor Theatre to stage The Manic Monologues for Mental Health Awareness Week 2023.

Compiled by Zachary Burton and Elisa Hofmeister, The Manic Monologues works to smash the stigma associated with mental illness by sharing the true stories of those with first hand experiences.

Audiences will hear stories about struggle and pain but also triumph, joy and, importantly, recovery. These diverse and moving narratives will greatly challenge assumptions about what it means to live with a mental illness with a variety of pieces varying in length ranging in tone from tragic to comedic and harrowing to joyful.

Director and founder of Carving in Ice Theatre, Gaye Poole comments,

“When searching for a Carving in Ice Theatre project for Mental Health Awareness Week 2023 I came across The Manic Monologues website. I was very taken with Zachary Burton's story about his own extremely severe mental health crisis and then bipolar disorder diagnosis in 2017 which very nearly derailed his PhD studies. It further intrigued me that Zack and then partner Elisa Hofmeister decided to adopt the medium of theatre through which to widen the conversation and fight stigma around mental illness, even though they had never been involved in theatre before.”

The Manic Monologues was first performed at Stanford University, California (2019). Live performances since then include; Des Moines, Iowa (2019); University of California, Los Angeles (2020); Zucker School of Medicine, New York (2022); New Tampa Players & Crisis Center of Tampa Bay, Florida (2022); and Nairobi, Kenya (2022). There have also been several virtual versions, including by The McCarter Theater Center.

Carving in Ice Theatre’s Meteor season is set to run 19-23 September during New Zealand Mental Health Awareness Week and features a cast of 19 local actors from Kirikiriroa Hamilton and beyond.

Poole comments, “I first imagined that I'd invite seven or eight actors and they might do two or three monologues each but as I re-read the monologues I 'heard' certain voices or actors telling those stories...and that is how we've ended up with 19 wonderful actors in the cast!”

Based on real lived experiences, the monologues tell of deep distress yet also contain very welcome moments of lightness and levity guaranteed to draw audiences in to empathise with the storytellers.

The Manic Monologues will be performed by; Antony Aiono, Yurika Arai, Danny Bailey, Nick Bourchier, Julianne Boyle, Kathleen Christian, Mandy Faulkner, Libbie Gillard, Nick Hall, Liam Hinton, Simon Howie, Brad Jackson, David Lumsden, Conor Maxwell, Missy Mooney, Georgia Pollock, Fiona Sneyd, Janine Swainson and Sara Young.

When Poole contacted creator Zack Burton regarding Carving in Ice Theatre’s upcoming season last year, he was very happy to give Carving in Ice permission to stage the first-ever production of The Manic Monologues in Aotearoa New Zealand, responding: “It is just wonderful to hear from you, and fabulous to hear of your interest in bringing The Manic Monologues to life for Mental Health Awareness Week in Aotearoa.

Tickets to The Manic Monologues and more information can be found at themeteor.co.nz.

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