Julie Ridge Photo by Russ Rowland

"Just me, a rudimentary map of the English Channel displaying my stunning art skills, some Kleenex for when I get verklempt, and my story."

Indeed, Ridge's solo play at Theater Row is a decidedly low-budget affair as far as production values go. There are no credits for a director or for any of the stage design elements. But the production is very rich in priceless elements such as the warmth and charm that go with the playwright/performer's simple desire to share her story.

Standing behind a music stand that holds a script that she only occasionally references, Ridge explains how she was living an ideal life in 1981:

"I was in my mid-20s, single, self-supporting, and fulfilling my childhood dream of being in a Broadway show. By night, I sang in Oh! Calcutta!. By day, I swam a casual mile in my 25 yard pool at Manhattan Plaza."

It was at that famous subsidized residence for New York artists that she met a fellow swimmer who would go on to become a very popular and respected Broadway and Off-Broadway actor (no spoilers here). But when her friend had to take a six-week hiatus from swimming while nursing an injury, Ridge took it upon herself to fulfill that person's two mile a day routine, as a friendly tribute.

Not only did she find herself perfectly capable of swimming even longer distances, but she began feeling high from the experience.

"I'd transcended some physical threshold and entered a mental state that friends who'd done hallucinogens described."

A self-described "leap-and-the-net-will appear" kind of person, she decided to set a goal to swim the English Channel for her 25th birthday, giving her nine months to train in long distance swimming.

Once a headline-making achievement, swimming the, at its briefest distance between land, 21 mile wide waterway has become a well-regulated business. Ridge describes how time must be reserved in advance, experienced escorts need to be hired, and an official from the English Channel Swimming Association must be present to make sure all rules are obeyed. And bad weather can cancel the whole thing.

Using a dry-erase board, she compares a swim under optimum conditions with hers, plagued by challenges with tides and currents that set her way off course.

While being the 242nd person to swim from England to France, she then became the first to swim two consecutive circles around Manhattan, earning her a guest spot on "Late Night With David Letterman" ("The coolest nine minutes of my life.") and was inspired to take on several other high-profile athletic challenges.

But different kinds of challenges, such as depression and suicidal thoughts leading to dangerous actions, began appearing with greater frequency, until she was diagnosed with what was then called "manic depressive illness."

The second half of her play looks back on her then-inexplicable behavior, the consequences it had on her life and career, and the support of loved ones, especially her late father, who helped her through the difficult treatment that got her to the point where she can now stand on a stage and talk to strangers about it.

You might consider that Bipolar & the English Channel could benefit from some video enhancement or more movement from the performer, but the simplicity of this production strongly emphasizes how genuine and completely of herself this piece is.

"Telling my story publicly isn't an act of bravery or courage," she insists. "It's my responsibility."

After dreams of Broadway stardom and having achieved nine minutes of late night television fame, Ridge stresses that the goal of her Off-Broadway appearance is help people know that whatever they're suffering through, they are not alone.

"If more of us felt freer to tell our stories, I think fewer of us would kill ourselves."