7 Day Drunk

Whilst trying to explain Bryony Kimmings current run at the Soho Theatre to a friend…”and then she gets an audience member to drink 7 shots of vodka in 7 minutes and later sort of snogs her at a pretend rave before getting her to wear a sparkly gladiatorial hat and bash a pinate donkey” I realised that some performance art just has to be seen (except Cirque du Soleil, which should NEVER be seen), there’s no explaining it without it sounding like, well, exploitation and cheap laughs.

Which 7 Day Drunk certainly wasn’t. Whilst I wouldn’t recommend it for those who think alcohol is the demon drink we should all avoid, this show was a balanced, heart-warming look at the links between creativity and booze. Locked in an institutional type place, Bryony spent 7 days getting more and more drunk (by the seventh day she was breakfasting on 11 shots of vodka), whilst under the watchful eye of a GP, a psychologist, various other science bods and some randomly chosen audience members. Everything she created was re-created in the show: all formed from a state of intoxication.

And the result? Apparently, yes, alcohol does make you more creative. But it also makes you depressed, self-hating, and catatonic – as the various videos of Bryony flopping about with a pink straw hanging out of her mouth showed us. And it destroys your rather vital liver function. Ouch.

But in moderation it makes you lose your inhibitions – as audience member Eve did, and me and my friend did too – knocking back the rest of our red wine and leaping to our feet for the imaginary rave. C’mon creativity!

http://www.bryonykimmings.com/