With material gathered from Jung's Red Book and his autobiography Memories, Dream, Reflections, plus selected passages of the correspondence between O'Neill and Jung's eldest living grandchild, Brigitte Merk-Niehaus, the timely, alarmingly thought provoking and sometimes delightfully humorous "The Voice of Jung" is sure to please not only those already familiar with Jung's work, but will also serve as a comprehensive introduction to the life and ideas of Analytical Psychology's founding father C. G. Jung; one of the 20th century's most seminal thinkers.
Author's Notes:
“The Voice of Jung” had its beginnings when I was in analysis with Fraser Boa in the late 1980’s and early 90’s. For the Fringe of Toronto Festival in 1994 I presented the first iteration of the play, then called “Jung at Heart." More recently, while I was touring the globe in the Cirque du Soleil show Toruk; The First Flight, I had a number of dreams wherein the idea of bringing Jung to the theatre — and the character of Jung himself — prompted me to once again explore this long-standing urge. By way of some unanticipated ‘twists and turns’, as in "The Voice of Jung" you will hear, I was the recipient of an invitation to visit Jung's Bollingen tower while my Cirque show was playing in Zurich. This led to a most delightful friendship with Jung's granddaughter, Brigitte Merk-Niehus, and a second extended visit to the tower in the summer of 2022. The weaving together of my lifelong fascination with Jung-- a journey which began in theatre school when I was not yet twenty-- and the friendship with Brigitte and the great pleasure of spending time with her at the remarkable tower of Bollingen, is the the subject matter of the play you're about to see here today.
I would like to acknowledge that my colleague and friend Ed Thomason, the dramaturge and director, has played no small part in the journey of getting "The Voice of Jung" 'from the page to the stage'. I am deeply grateful to Ed for his generosity of time, his mentoring, and the wise and seasoned guidance he has provided during our collaboration.
Watch a video of Raymond O'Neil rehearsing The Voice of Jung by clicking here.
What Audiences Are Saying
~What a great show! I came away so impressed and moved by O'Neill's powerful performance, and really interested in Carl Jung.
~Congratulations on a deeply heartfelt and passionate expression of a complex inter-weaving of your life, history, present day politics and more, with some of Jung's seminal understanding of the human psyche and spirit. I was moved, tickled, and reminded.
~I was really moved by the experience. It left me wanting to know more about Jung.
~The braiding together of dreams, the magical trip to the Bollingen tower and the friendship between Jung's granddaughter and O'Neill, not to mention the passion and rage of Jung 'himself'-- excellent show. Thank you!
~Marvellous, magical, and moving. Congratulations!
About Raymond O'Neill
Raymond O'Neill has worked for 50 years as an actor and director in theatre. For seven years he was a member of the Stratford Festival of Canada playing many Shakespearean roles, and, also, Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady and Max Detweiler in The Sound of Music. He is the writer and director of the Festival's 2004 production of Ruth Draper on Tour. During his long career in theatre and television he has lived and worked in New York, Los Angeles, Johannesburg, and Buenos Aires. Just recently he has finished a four-year round the world tour as the Storyteller in the Cirque du Soleil avatar-themed show Toruk: The First Flight.