Intoxication | Before Shot
Christopher Bryant peels back his sparkly exterior and lays bare the deep anxieties of modern dating in this one man show. Intoxication is raw and fun. The stage is set like a group therapy session, in a room, bare, except for a circle of chairs. Here, Christopher told us the story of his twenties, of substance abuse, online dating, drama school and a life-altering car accident, using monologues, conversations with absent people and stream of consciousness.
At its core, the show is about love and relationships and the anxiety, self-doubt, self-loathing, and questions of worth that can come along with it. Christopher addressed audience members as if they were people in his life, people he admired, desired, despised. The audience became participants, watching and being watched in the circle. Partway through the show, Christopher asked for a volunteer and a man became an effigy for his first boyfriend, a moody design student with paint on his fingertips.
It was satisfying to see such familiar feelings played out on the stage, but agony to watch this man tie himself in knots. I was impressed by the energy and attention he brought to each moment on stage and by his unwavering eye contact with individual audience members. It felt personal, intimate, and vulnerable. There were loud outbursts and soft musings. Christopher was playful, weaving humour and fun into heavy subject matter, but the audience didn’t seem to have permission to laugh.
Much of the audience was older than the performer and myself, and I was surprised at how stoic many of them appeared throughout the show. The show advertised insight into the ‘queer millennial’ experience, and I wonder if this audience was the target audience for the show.
At times, Intoxication was text heavy, and I found myself checking out. I was brought back in by dynamic moments such as the violent shaking of a water bottle to simulate the experience of a brain being struck by a car. The overarching narrative timeline was a little confusing, and sometimes made me question how the performer had arrived at an intense emotional scene.
Intoxication shines a light on the noxious environment online dating can be and recognises the dissonance between the way we represent ourselves and the way we are. The show uses language informed by therapy. Christopher portrayed a kind of love that is textbook insecure attachment, where he obsesses over and seeks approval from people he barely knows. He weaves in wisdoms from Brene Brown that offer the audience answers and ways out of this feeling. I left the show feeling seen, held, and human.
