Seven Day Drunk @ Arches

Bryony Kimmings‘ experiment poses the question - does the devil’s juice aid or hamper creativity? A massive hit at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe last year, the show is revived with a slap around the chops for Behaviour’s finale. Part autobiography, part frenetic performance art; monitored by doctors, carer and psychologist, Kimmings wondered to what degree alcohol affected body and mind and so drank vodka and cranberry for one week- the results appearing on a video diary on a big screen.
 

Audience member Amelia is pulled out to drink Kimmings’ entire weekly intake for the show’s duration (our host is sober throughout) followed by an awkward re-enactment of a teen house party, with four willing victims, right down to last song snog and grope.

Bryony Kimmings’ songs, played on a tinny keyboard, are hilarious; an unholy ménage a trios between MIA, John Hegley and Lily Allen. It’s not easy rhyming anything with Bukowski, but she (almost) manages. 7DD is shot through with the kind of self-aware humour that has the audience howling then wincing in recognition. Whether attempting to dance like Keith Flint, be sexy when sporting kebab meat in her bra, or confusing bad poetry for genuine insight, Kimmings is all too aware of the effects of loosening inhibitions - and bowels.

Poignant moments prickle the skin like the sudden recollection of the night before - she talks at one stage to her ex-flatmate Amy Liptrot about Liptrot’s battle with alcoholism in an unsparing interview and warns of the first signs of liver damage, without moralising.

Lairy but layered, as likeable as Kimmings herself, intelligently blurring art boundaries, the conclusion to the original question of aiding creativity is a resounding “yesh.”