The Psychiatrist, a play by psychiatrist and physician Julian Bird based on his experience in practice, is currently playing at The White Bear Theatre in Kennington, where it received it’s UK premiere. It runs until Saturday 26 April 2025. We sat down with Julian and the producer Alistair for an exclusive interview.
Julian Bird
The Psychiatrist is based on your own experiences in psychiatry. What was the biggest challenge in translating those real-life experiences into a dramatic narrative?
The first challenge was truthfulness: I wanted to tell the real story of a real patient of mine but I felt I had to change some details of this patient’s background to ensure that the real-life patient could not be readily identified.
The next challenge was how much of my own background and life-experiences should I use when fleshing out the character of Andrew Faulkner, the psychiatrist at the centre of the story.
You’ve had a fascinating career transition from psychiatrist to actor. How has your background in medicine influenced your approach to performing, particularly in this role?
I still think of myself as a physician and at one stage wanted to specialise in neurology but a charismatic psychiatrist won me over to the dark side! I was always fascinated by the way illness changes peoples lives and the way in which many people become pre-occupied with physical functions and physical appearance. I wanted to understand this better “from the inside” so to speak and felt I needed more capacity for empathy. In my sixties I want to drama school and started to learn some of what it felt like to physically be the other person.
The play explores the mental health struggles of psychiatrists themselves—why do you think it’s important to shed light on this aspect of the profession?
In recent years there has been a growing realisation that the mental health of mental health staff, including psychiatrists, is a critical factor in the treatment of their patients. This issue is at the heart of the play.
Let me quote The Royal College of Psychiatrits:
The professional relationship that exists between a psychiatrist and a patient can be of paramount importance in successfully establishing a line of treatment and promoting adherence to it. The trust involved in this can be impaired or lost when the treating doctor suffers with poor mental health that affects his or her ability to maintain professional standards or provide appropriate care.( https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/pdf/PS03_18.pdf )
Alistair Brown
How has the show balanced the psychological realism of The Psychiatrist with making it theatrically engaging for an audience?
Julian’s play ‘The Psychiatrist’ shows the difficulties and struggles of the profession in trying to treat patients’ mental health issues, whilst also trying to come to terms with their own. It also explores the lack of beds and resources in dealing with mental health issues, and the difficult decisions that professionals have to make on a daily basis.
As a director, how do you balance the psychological realism of The Psychiatrist with making it theatrically engaging for an audience?
This is the first piece of new writing I have been involved with for a number of years. As a friend of Julian’s I had seen rehearsed readings of the play in various forms, some quite different for the final version, and he has spoken about his desire to tell this story for quite a while. It has elements that are based on real events, which I think adds to the drama and that Julian has wanted to share this story with an audience for such a long time, means I definitely have a personal connection to it. The exposure of the lack of beds for mental health patients is something that has been in the news again recently, and this play also gives a timely reminder of how still in this day and age we are failing people with very serious medical conditions.
Given that Julian is also the playwright, how collaborative has the process been in terms of shaping the final production?
I think Julian and Kenneth Michaels (the show’s director) have had a very clear vision on the final production and how it should look and it has been great to draw on Julian’s expertise, as a Psychiatrist, as well as an actor. I think that there was always a feeling that light and sound would play a big part in setting up the various settings of the play and Edmund Sutton, has done a wonderful job in creating the atmosphere of the show. It has been wonderful to have Stephanie as part of the cast as well, who brings a very different energy to both of the roles, something that Julian and myself both wanted when it was decided the play would be a 2-hander.