Auckland Arts Festival 2025 - Personal

What’s it like to live in a Deaf family, where using sign language is natural, in a society that sees only your family’s disability with voyeuristic curiosity? One of the most poignant, engaging and perceptively funny theatre pieces we’ve discovered in a while, Personal is artist Jodee Mundy’s (OAM ) story of being CODA (child of Deaf adults). Her experience as the only hearing person in a Deaf family— something she first realised when she was lost in a Kmart as a five-year-old — is cleverly portrayed through performance, storytelling, multimedia and animation, all with a lightness of touch that’s truly captivating.

Jodee Mundy OAM is an interdisciplinary artist and cultural leader based in Melbourne. She lives with a chronic illness and identifies as an artist with an acquired disability. Bilingual in Auslan (Australian Sign Language) and English, she is the only person who hears in her all-Deaf family and is a CODA. First presented in 2018, her solo performance of Personal explores the role children of Deaf adults play in paving the way for their family – as interpreter, authority, conduit. It was created with a talented team of collaborators and is presented in two languages via a virtual interpreter.

"Jodee Mundy’s Personal is a winning and inclusive tonic, consistently hilarious and informative." -Time Out

"Personal, aside from a triumphant piece of performance and live theatre, does something special; it bridges divides, it removes, within this context, “us” and “them”. Not often does theatre, despite the best of intentions, achieve such heights." -Melbourne Critique

"This is a notable and important example of where access is not part of the performance, access is the performance." -Arts Hub

All shows are NZSL interpreted – bilingual English and Sign Language. 

Q&A: 
On Friday 7th March, join a post show Q&A with Jodee Mundy, facilitated by Rāhera Turner from Equal Voices NZ (NZSL interpreted).