Thomas Monckton

• New Zealand

• Actor

Born in New Zealand, Thomas Monckton is a performer with more than one string to his bow. In life as on stage, he leaps nimbly from one discipline to the next like a tightrope-walker, complete with the pretend wobble. In the blink of an eye the clown becomes an acrobat, then transforms into a mime. Two major themes run throughout all of his shows: self-deprecation and poetry.
Thom knows and respects his classics, but when he takes to the stage his own unique personality fills the space.
Thom started out in New Zealand, performing solo and as a member of the Ugly Shakespeare Theatre Company. He is now based in Europe. He has performed his silent solo show, The Pianist, in Europe, New York and New Zealand. His performance piece Only Bones has been staged in Finland, throughout the rest of Europe and in New Zealand, China and Mexico. The show won the Best Physical Theater award at the NZ Fringe 2015.
Acclaimed by international critics, Thomas Monckton has travelled the world, performing for enthusiastic audiences as far afield as China. But it was back in Paris, at the Jacques Lecoq theatre school, that he found the missing piece of his artistic puzzle. A worthy heir to Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, his creative horizons expanded when he discovered the Marceau mime tradition. "I saw it, and I felt like it was something I could do," he explains in his distinctive Kiwi tones.