ENDURANCE, MANIA,
AND THE WILL TO SURVIVE

A raw solo performance that turns lived
experience into hard-earned clarity

Bipolar disorder, marked by its vertiginous highs and devastating lows, is an incurable condition that exacts a profound toll on those who live with it. Yet within this relentless struggle, many who are afflicted demonstrate a remarkable capacity for endurance, creativity, and astonishing courage. Watching Julie Ridge, who has navigated the disorder her entire life, recount her English Channel swims at Theatre Row is a singular experience, rendered all the more compelling by her wry, offhand charm and her ability to captivate without the help of sets or lighting.

The title tells it all: deciding to swim the Channel and the onset of a manic episode share striking similarities, as both are driven by impulsivity, heightened confidence, boundless energy, and a tolerance for risk. But Ridge is careful not to romanticize mania. From the outset, she acknowledges its terrifying dangers and thanks her father and her psychiatrist, both of whom help her survive. Her superpower lies in learning how to channel manic energy into structured challenges, redirecting intense psychological chaos into disciplined, productive pursuits.

It is no small feat, and Ridge approaches it without a trace of pretension. She swims casual laps in college pools while studying fine arts and acting, imagining a life onstage rather than in open water — until she decides that by her twenty-fifth birthday she will swim the English Channel. Just like that, with very little deliberation. And when she describes it, it sounds like a mildly ambitious hobby rather than the kind of undertaking that leaves professional athletes questioning their life choices. Training from scratch, enduring endless hours of zigzagging through opposing tides, losing her bearings in the dark, and pushing through gelid waters are recounted with gentle self-deprecation and rendered almost comical.

Years after her first triumph, Ridge finds herself in a psychiatric ward, diagnosed with bipolar disorder and navigating the bewildering bureaucracy and absurdities of mental health care. She is unsentimental about her suffering, which makes the second half of the piece more gripping than the first. Survival, in Ridge’s telling, is less romantic but far more formidable. More endurance challenges follow: the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon, multiple Manhattan Island swims, and eventually a total of eleven circumnavigations over the course of her career. She also earns a master’s degree in social work and establishes the Frank Ridge Memorial Foundation in honor of her father. The foundation focuses on mental health education, destigmatization, and community support. The audacity of her goals is matched by her determination to meet them.

Even as the piece clearly aims to present nothing more than a portrait of a single life, the staging might benefit from a few visual projections. Beyond that, Julie Ridge’s story is raw, honest, and completely unique — not quite theatre, but a rare gem you will not forget.

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photos by Russ Rowland

Bipolar & The English Channel
Theatre Row, Theater 5, 410 W. 42nd St.
75 minutes, no intermission
ends on December 14, 2025
for tickets, visit Theatre Row

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