‘Flying Solo’ – Manjeet Mann running on the road of recovery from trauma…

February 24 2016

Depressed and really unable to cope, a young actor-writer found help in marathon-running and therapy and tells us what led her to write a play about it…

MENTAL health and bereavement are difficult subjects at the best of times, but a new one-woman play aims to explore these subjects and help people come to terms with similar trauma.

Manjeet Mann’s play “Flying Solo” can be seen at Birmingham Rep for three nights from tomorrow (February 25).

The actor/writer was prompted to write “Flying Solo” following the death of her own father in 2008 and her subsequent mental breakdown, when she was severely depressed and unable to cope with ‘normal life’.

She deals with these issues candidly in the hour-long drama, but plays different characters and links her recovery to running. She told www.asianculturevulture.com the day she signed up to the Edinburgh Marathon was a turning point. While it is loosely based on her real experiences, she has been able to explore the issues more deeply.

“My life isn’t a script,” she told www.asianculturevulture.com. “You have to up the ante in some parts, take it down in others and sometimes plain make stuff up!”

She is actually running the London Marathon this April and will attach a camera to herself to record her experiences for a film version of “Flying Solo”.

In the play, her main character Amber is also limbering up for the challenge of the London Marathon.

She took the play around community centres last year and found that it helped people to open up about their own experiences – especially around mental health.

Asked about the reaction of the Asian community – which often has deeper taboos about mental health – she told www.asianculturevulture.com: “ Sadly, I think mental health issues are still a difficult subject amongst the Asian community.

“It’s not something that is directly tackled in the play; mental health is tackled as more of a universal theme.

“I played to a group of Asian women. The response was overwhelming actually. I had emails from some of the ladies a few weeks afterwards. The play had really struck a chord with them.”

She said she herself was not aware of the stigma and shame that is, sometimes tragically and quite unnecessarily, attached to mental health and trauma.

“To be honest, that never even occurred to me,” she conceded in an email exchange with www.asianculturevulture.com. “I was just so interested in the theme.

“I felt that I had such an eye opening experience after my own breakdown that I just had to write about it.

“I saw how universal my experience was, that I actually felt quite detached from it. I don’t think I see it as my story any more. I see it as a story that is shared and experienced by many people.”

The play moves back and forth against the backdrop of preparing for the London marathon.

“It’s inspired by a whole series of events and memories from childhood,” she explained.

“I’ve always been interested in how childhood traumas can affect adult mental health, which is one of the main themes running through Flying Solo.

“I’m exploring events rather than actual accounts. It is a personal story but by no means is the play completely autobiographical. The piece is inspired by certain things that have happened in my life but is by no means a verbatim piece of theatre.”

She said the key her to her own recovery was being able to talk about it.

Mann explained: “When I sought professional help it was a huge discovery.

“Since then I feel as though I’ve been on this massive journey with myself. It’s not like I had this awful upbringing. It wasn’t at all.
“But the strict conservative upbringing I had happened to have a detrimental effect on me.

“I had no idea. So many things made sense to me since those therapy sessions. Life-changing I tell you! We all need to talk more!”

She welcomed the general move to greater openness about mental health issues which the government and other agencies have also been encouraging.

“There’s definitely more discussions going on. It’s a really positive and moving in the right direction,” she affirmed.

She described her own background as a “typical working-class upbringing” in the Black Country (West Midlands).

Her late father was employed at the steel works and her mother worked in a factory.

She said money was tight but she never felt deprived and lauded her parents for their care – “amazing”, she revealed.

A former personal instructor, she has been in such productions as “Behind the Beautiful Forevers” and will be working on two new plays which she cannot tell us about presently.

She is also working on her first writing commission, as well as a film version of “Flying Solo”.

The play will be coming to London – the Tristan Bates Theatre and Canada Water Cultural Centre in April.

She was inspired to get into acting after a group of actors from Birmingham Rep in a production of the GB Shaw classic, “Pygmalion” came to her school to work with GCSE and A-level students.

Despite being only in Year 9 (13-14 years of age), she was allowed to participate in the workshop, and was commended and encouraged to seek out an acting career by the female lead.

“I was ‘ok!’ That was that. If a professional actress thought I should be an actor, who am I to argue!”.

Listing
‘Flying Solo’ , February 25-27 8pm – Birmingham Repertory Theatre, (The Door), Broad St, Birmingham, West Midlands B1 2EP
Box Office: 0121 236 4455

Tickets/info: http://www.birmingham-rep.co.uk/event/flying-solo/?tab=6#unit-production-dates