Interview with Bryony Kimmings

Imagine being drunk 10 am-7pm everyday for seven days a week. You have to do this – it is part of your job. And no you’re not a student; instead you’re performance artist Bryony Kimmings investigating the current and historical phenomena of whether excessive drinking actually enhances creativity. Or if it’s alcoholic artists hiding under the name of ‘genius’. The result of this inebriated week (albeit under the watchful eye of psychologists and scientists) is her new show, 7 Day Drunk. Talking to Bryony she mentions the obvious flaw in this plan: the show is based on decisions made and actions done when she is, in her own words, “hammered”!
 
Whilst Bryony is not, and never has been an alcoholic, the idea generated when her house mate was descending into alcoholism and Bryony believed her own drinking led to a “depressive state that was good for my creative output.” Bryony is refreshingly honest when discussing her past and it took this to have the self realisation that this correlation is “crap, my housemate is killing herself and I’m on the way to doing so”.

Whilst most people would not react to this by attempting to investigate, under controlled conditions, what would happen when drinking and creating for a week, Bryony managed just that. Having secured ACE funding so she didn’t “have to drink a bottle of vodka in a shed” Bryony filmed the experiment and saw it as the “best week of her life”.  Overcoming the hair of the dog, and having three days of pure joy and then four days of “crying for no reason” led her to realise the falsity of alcohol: “it is a drug, just like any other drug, only through historical chance it is legal, and all that occurred was so false, nothing that bad happened.” Yet, rather than looking back with bitterness, Bryony sees the experiment as overwhelmingly positive with it being a very much “healthy thing to happen to me”.

This excessiveness is pervasive in today’s culture with figures like Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty holding such a grip over the public imagination that posthumously Winehouse’s 2006 album ‘Back to Black’ has become the best selling album of this century. And yet, how different would their work would be without alcohol or heroin? Whilst Bryony is keen to distance herself from these figures who she terms “lame idiots who certainly don’t inspire me”, this relationship is clearly fascinating to her and one that drives the whole show.

The omniscience of drugs, legal or illegal, in the creative scene is apparent throughout history with celebrated figures such as Keats, Coleridge, Van Gogh, Dickens and even more recently the 70’s rock musician Jim Morrison having all crafted works under the influence of opium or alcohol. Even though many of these celebrated artists arrived at somewhat sticky ends, Bryony’s show finds humour in her excessive drinking; why else would she make the decision to be dressed in a nauseatingly cute pink jumpsuit surrounded by unicorns?!

Her message isl conveyed in typical Bryony Kimming’s style which involves said flamboyant costumes and an explicit destruction of the audience/performer boundary. Bryony wants the audience to “realise something”; whether that be through the trust of getting one lucky member to drink six vodka shots, or everyone involved in a rave. This participation, her physical theatre and her crazy dress sense allow Bryony to challenge our perception of alcohol without once slipping into the role of boring disciplinarian.

Given Bryony’s view that “when I have a drink, it’s not fun anymore”, it is tempting to suggest that this correlation has been proved negative but this answer is the teasing finale of her show. Given Whitney Houston’s death just this weekend, this show may be particularly apt in reviewing how and why we drink. But, be warned – after watching the affects of vodka cranberry on someone for a whole week – it may be one drink you won’t be able to stomach again!

Written by Laura Stevens

Bryony Kimmings is performing at Exeter Phoenix onTue 21 Feb, 8pm, £10 (£8)

For more information, and to book tickets, visit Bryony Kimmings: 7 Day Drunk >>