Intoxication

121329 original

In 2014, while on holiday in Berlin, Christopher Bryant was struck by a car. He acquired a brain injury in the accident, and the rehabilitation process was difficult and ongoing. Intoxication represents part of that process. Bryant continues to contextualise the trauma of that event and come to an understanding of himself.

This is a very intimate show. Bryant often eschews the microphone to deliver his monologue, leaving the stage to sit among the audience. Such an approach complements the raw and personal nature of his tale. He spends time examining the whys and wherefores of app dating: the shallowness of connections it engenders, the focus on sex and immediate gratification, the necessary artifice of posing and posturing. This isn’t unique content for a Fringe show. But, in the repetition of these themes Bryant invites the audience to empathise with his anxieties and feelings of inadequacy.

In this sense, Intoxication is about the subtle and profound ways in which the world shapes us and the deep impressions trauma leaves. But it is also about the struggle to reach out past them and make personal connections.