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Prince of the Psychiatric System

Name: Prince of the Psychiatric System
Start: 2026-05-22T19:00:00+13:00
End: 2026-05-24T14:00:00+13:00
Location: New Athenaeum Theatre

About

‘Prince of the Psychiatric System’ is a true-life story written by Dunedin resident Haki S Davis, a Dunedin playwright and poet, in 2021. The play highlights lived experience in the New Zealand mental health system. The first performance of the play was met with success, and it has now been revised and edited by Haki with substantial changes made based on feedback from the audience.
‘Prince of the Psychiatric System’ is a powerful, original stage play that explores the inner world of a patient navigating life inside a psychiatric ward in Ōtepoti. Blending lived experience with elements of surrealism and allegory, the play invites audiences deep into the mind of DeArk - a character experiencing schizophrenia, paranoia, religious delusion, and grandiose thinking - while confronting the stigma and side effects of mental health treatment.
Guided by the invisible presence of Pinocchio, an audible voice only he can hear, DeArk embarks on a profound psychological and spiritual journey. Pinocchio does not heal through pills, or diagnosis but through radical empathy, imagination, and challenge. He helps DeArk find pathways toward dignity, insight, and self-worth—not by erasing the illness, but by learning to live with it constructively.
With moments of absurdity, tragedy, and deep human truth, ’Prince of the Psychiatric System’ critiques the limits of conventional psychiatric care while honouring the resilience of those who endure it. The work confronts the uneasy balance between medical treatment and personal agency, asking timely questions about what it truly means to be well.