Karin McCracken: Heartbreak Hotel

We caught up with writer, co-creator and actor Karin McCracken on her lunchbreak during rehearsals.

We start by talking about past works from EBKM (Eleanor Bishop and Karin McCracken) – shows dealing with different aspects of relationships and ask her to cast her mind back to writing Heartbreak Hotel.

“I was heartbroken,” she says. “And I was looking for things which were soothing to watch or read and struggled to find things which I could relate to. I found solace in music and that’s probably why there’s so much music in the show. So, I decided I wanted to write something myself that felt true and honest, but was soothing.

“Eleanor and I made Yes Yes Yes about healthy relationships and emotional literacy and that’s where I was coming from for this play about heartbreak but looking at it all through a very different lens.”

Heartbreak Hotel not only shares anecdotes and experiences of a woman’s broken heart but delves into the science and physiology of love.

“The launching point was my own experience but then building on that and adding in other material looking at what actually happens to your body when you’re heartbroken.

“We do talk directly to the audience – that’s in the DNA of what we do as a company, and that really made me think a lot about what live performance provides and the idea of a performer on stage talking to you and looking at you, and you see some variation of yourself in the performer. I do really put myself out there with this play – it’s hard to make something about heartbreak and not have something of yourself on stage.”

A two-hander play with Simon Leary, Heartbreak Hotel has toured around Aotearoa, Australia, onto Edinburgh Festival Fringe and London with sold-out performances and ecstatic reviews. “It’s been good to be able to benchmark your work internationally. When people overseas come along and say ‘this is great’, that’s very validating. But it feels good to be back for a return season in Wellington.

“It feels so good. In the last 18 months we’ve been all over the place and it’s special to be back in Wellington – it’s where I live and it’s where the play was born. And performing at Circa is part of the progression of our careers. It’s great being there following last year’s season of Gravity and Grace for the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts.”

The multi-talented writer/actor who was named Actor of the Year in 2024 for her roles in Heartbreak Hotel and Gravity and Grace, says she enjoys both sides of creating a play – writing and acting.

“I love writing. I get in the zone with it. I keep normal hours and look at the writing aspect as a ‘normal job’. But with acting I laugh a lot, and I love getting the feedback from audiences, but you’re really running on adrenaline the whole time. Both aspects are very important to me.”

Following the season at Circa Theatre, Karin is heading to New Hampshire to take up a writing residency after being awarded a prestigious MacDowell Fellowship.

“It’s four weeks of writing – there are no distractions, no wifi and your lunch is even delivered to your room!”

Finally, I ask Karin – did writing, creating and performing the play help heal the heartbreak?

“Yes, I think it did. My solution to many heartbreaks in my life has been to try and pretend it didn't happen – sometimes that looks like remaining close friends with the person, so I don't 'lose' them, sometimes it looks like getting lost in another relationship so as not to feel it. The process of having to very carefully reflect on the experience of heartbreak forced me to really let myself feel it. This was important for me.”

And she adds, when performing the show, “I really can feel all the heartbreak in the room when I perform, and I welcome it. People undervalue the significance and pain of grief. I want the show to be a place where it is accepted as an extremely serious mental, physical and emotional experience.”

Heartbreak Hotel is at Circa Theatre from 14-25 October

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