Christopher Bryant

Anthea:

Hi, this is Anthea Williams on 2RPH with Sideshow. Today, we're talking to theater maker, Christopher Bryant, about his writing practice and his new show, New Balance. Christopher Bryant, thank you so much for joining us on Sideshow.

Christopher:

Thank you for having me.

Anthea:

So, there are so many things I want to talk to you about today. But first of all, you should tell us about your show, New Balance, which I know has already been on in Victoria, but is about to be on in Sydney.

Christopher:

Yeah, so New Balance is a performance piece that's basically centred around the intersection of queerness and disability and sort of exploring what it means to have queerness and to have a disability and experience a disability, and it sort of came out of conversations that myself and Emma Palackic was the co sort of creator. We sort of had these conversations about, I guess key moments in our respective childhoods, which sort of were initially begun as key moments where we sort of realised we were queer.

Sort of one of the big ones was we both... our first experience of queerness came from late night SBS. So I would occasionally watch, you'd see like Queer As Folk and you'd be like, "Whoa, is this illegal? Can I do this? Like what?" and she used to... she remembers her dad falling asleep in front of the TV and seeing some late night European film with, with two lovely ladies getting it on, and being like, "Oh, I quite align myself with that."

And as we sort of had these moments, we sort of wondered what are these sort of, these other moments that sort of no one of our generation, our particular age, I'm 34, so is Emma, where, you know, at that age, we weren't exposed to queerness. We weren't exposed to sort of, I guess, much difference. But we sort of found these kind of weird ties that kind of bound us. And as we started exploring and purs... we just began interviewing each other about these moments.

We started also talking about our own experiences of disability, 'cause I'm disabled. Emma has a learning disability as well. And we sort of, it took both of us these true sort of experiences of marginalisation that I guess felt intrinsically linked. And so we sort of hadn't really seen much in the way of, "Oh, how does queerness inform disability? How does disability inform queerness?" And so, yeah, it sort of was an explosion of that, I guess.

Anthea:

Awesome, and how did the Melbourne season go? I know that, that was in the before times pre-COVID, but how was the first season received?

Christopher:

Really, really well, very, very positively. It was an interesting time. It was something that,  Emma and I have worked together for many, many years. And so we... (this is gonna be a long story, but it's gonna get there!) So we previously did a show together called Intoxication, that was, uh, I was in a very bad car crash that gave me a brain injury and while I was in hospital, they told me that I would never write again. I kinda went, "No, fuck that." (laughs) And started to write, but it was very like brain-injured writing.

And so long story short, I ended up developing a show out of that called Intoxication, which Emma directed and we sort of toured around the country and it was really great, and I guess touched a lot of people and that was really wonderful. As part of that, it got, it won, we won an award and the award came with a mentorship. We used the mentorship to develop New Balance.

So all these kind of things aligned in terms of New Balance working in the first, in that sort of season in early 2020 in terms of, because of the award, we had a free registration in Midsumma, we had the theatre for free, we had sort of all these things. So, at that time, we didn't really have any grant funding or any kind of thing like that. It was sort of very back... [inaudible 00:04:23] by crook. We didn't know obviously the extent to which COVID was gonna hit and change the world.

But it kind of was just that moment. "We have to get this up," and it was very, I guess, stressful at that time because, you know, we really had no money, we had sort of like, smell-of-an-oily-rag. But then getting it in front of an audience and just hearing how much so many people resonated with it, and they found moments that they saw themselves in and sort of things that, I guess a big thing that came out was a lot of people saying, "I've never heard anyone, or any show or any, like, representation talk about these particular parts of our experience, but I did that too," or, "My friends did this," or, "This is really," so it touched a lot of people, I think, in the sense that it was bringing something to the stage that I think maybe people hadn't considered was possible and necessary, if that makes sense.

Anthea:

Yeah. Yeah, it absolutely does. Did you identify as being part of the disability community before you had your injury?

Christopher:

No...

Anthea:

You didn't think so? That's, yeah, that's really interesting. And how has your practice changed since then?

Christopher:

Quite substantially in quite a few ways. I think before acquiring a disability in this accident and everything happened, I was very centred around sort of like a traditional playwriting process, like I guess that and, I hadn't really considered much of, I guess, the world beyond, beyond myself and me being like, "I like writing plays, blah, blah, blah."

(laughs) So I sort of, I did that and that was fine, was what I did. But from the car crash and everything that came out of it and the... my continued sort of I guess dealing with it and coming to the point where I very comfortably will talk about being disabled and made disability, and have connections in that community. I get, firstly, I sort of, the main thing, one of the main things that came out of my disability is this sort of side practice that I've now started to develop as like a sort of performance kind of thing.

Before that, I was never really particularly interested in doing it. I don't consider myself an actor, but it is this thing where it's, these are things that I've written for myself and it's this kind of almost a Nicola Gunn-esque kind of thing where I'm performing, but I'm performing as like a heightened version of myself. But it is theatrical, but it's not really like I'm, you know, an actor being like, "Hi, I'm Goody Proctor doing, you know, walking into the courtroom," this kind of stuff.

And I think part of that was, was really great in touring Intoxication around the country - and now with this new show, has been really great for my own confidence and my own like just getting amongst these ideas and because it's, you know, it's not fiction or anything like that, it's just truth. It's just the truth of what it means to be not even a disabled and queer person, but my particular experience of queerness and disability.

And I think as well, in terms of I also do write more traditional plays. In the plays that I've written since the accident, I think I've began to consider more readily the voices that we see and hear in theatre and really the voices that we don't see in... see and hear in theatre. So particularly with writing, you know, things where the table of creatives can actually find the space to just be themselves and to exist and to not prescribe as much or to not write solely for, you know, a white cisgendered able-bodied acting... like as much as there are so many great people, but you know, sort of diversifying the stories that I wanna tell and the people that I want to engage.

Anthea:

Yeah. That's, that's fantastic. 

I wanna talk a little bit about your PhD later because I think it sounds really exciting. But before we move onto that, I just wanna ask, is Emma someone you were working with before you had your accident or is Emma a collaborator you found later?

Christopher:

So beforehand, she and I have worked together since ooh, 2008, I think, when undergraduate uni, so we've always been, friends and sort of working on other plays that I had written in sort of the early days in like student theatre, that kind of stuff. And because of that, she's just someone that I intrinsically trust and we have so much love for each other.

And when it come down to, it came down to Intoxication, because that was such a specific and kind of full-on experience, it was the show we developed from, you know, my very brain-injured writing in hospital, and, and sort of it, in doing it, which I didn't even realise until we began to tour it, it sort of was asking me to relive some pretty traumatic stuff night after night after night, and that was only really able to happen for as long as it did because of Emma, because we had that deep connection and love for each other and we know sort of how the other works, but yeah, to just be able to support each other and look out for each other. But at the same time, like take, you know when you're with someone, you know, someone for so long that you sort of... like it's amazing but also you're not afraid to call them out on their shit?

Anthea:

Yeah.

Christopher:

That's the kind of relationship that we have where like I know that if she pushes me, it's not like to be cruel. It's like 'cause she's like, "Oh, I think actually you're trying to take the easy way out and I know that like previously you can, yeah." But then also she knows exactly when to step back or when to protect me and vice versa.

Anthea:

Yeah. I totally get that. But it also sounds like your, working practice has really evolved as you've been working together.

Christopher:

I think it's almost a thing of... when we started working together, both of us were, you know, bi-, like undergraduate uni, very like passionate about the world and about... not that I'm not passionate about the world now, but very passionate about the world and about theatre and about, you know, having this sort of, not having much experience with creating or making work or even just seeing as much as we could be exposed to other work and other makers and that kind of stuff.

And so, you had this idea of, like, a small idea on what stuff, like what theatre is and what performance is and it can only sort of be this thing. And then as we've seen more stuff, gone to more stuff, made more stuff, all this kind of stuff, both of our experiences have, have broadened and gotten wider and I think we're both socially and politically aligned in terms of what we're into, and that kind of thing. So, we sort of have traversed a similar path. And...

Anthea:

Yeah, that's fantastic. It sounds like you've grown up together as artists, which is...

Christopher:

Yeah.

Anthea:

... a really glorious place to be in.

Christopher:

It's good.

Anthea:

Hey, so you were told by a doctor you were not gonna write anymore and then you (laughs) turned around and got your PhD.

Christopher:

Yeah.

Anthea:

I love that, and as part of your PhD, you wrote a new version of Marat/Sade.

Christopher:

Yeah.

Anthea:

Can you tell our listeners a little bit more about that?

Christopher:

Yeah, of course. So the PhD was an interesting time. In a way, I would not have done my PhD unless I got hit by a car. (laughs) Like, down the line obviously, but you know, when I was [inaudible 00:12:27] the first time and before this injury had happened, I was like, "It's fine. I don't care, whatever. I'm just a playwright. La la la." Exactly like that. (laughs)

Anthea:

(laughs)

Christopher:

But we had to write a master's thesis. And so, I didn't really care about it or do much work on it. Then everything that happened, and I returned a year and a bit later very determined, like being like, "I'm gonna come in here and get, punch this out of the park. Like, I'm gonna win this," you know, not win, but, "I'm gonna do really well on this because I just wanna finish it as a like proof to myself that I can."

In doing that, I discovered, I was like, "Oh actually, surprise, I'm quite good at academia. I never really considered before." So I was able to sort of, I did so well in this master's thesis academic thing that I was able to, yeah, roll it into a PhD. So I never really, you know, a lot of people in PhD is like, "I've known that I'm gonna do this since I was 15 and..." I just kind of, I applied, I got in, the scholarship was much more than like being on [inaudible 00:13:31] so I was like, "All right, let's go. Let's work this out."

And so the project changed quite substantially across the three years. But it sort of, what it ended up was something that I'm so proud of and it was really looking at so many plays that I used to teach theatre... racist, sexist and in this case, ableist, you know, sort of, how can we expect people to engage with these plays if they are hurtful to communities? So then the broad question was, "What happens if we take one of these offensive plays, and ask someone from the margins that are being offended by this play, hypothetical, and get them to adapt it using their own experience of that marginalisation to make it, you know, un-fuck it basically," which is actually an academic term...

Anthea:

Mm.

Christopher:

... fun. Um, yeah. In this case, I sort of, I was taught Marat/Sade, oh, five times I think across my high school and then my undergraduate and then my undergraduate again and then when we did [inaudible 00:14:42] and then sort of it just kept coming back and it was one of those things at first when I didn't really know much about theater, I was like, "Oh wow, shit. I can do that? That's amazing. That's so weird." And then the more times it came back, I was like, "It's straight didactic and also kind of offensive, towards the end - and then sort of coming at the play after acquiring a disability, I just, all I could see was the horror of representation and like the pain that this play has caused.

I guess the biggest thing in coming at this play was sort of, the main thing that the film version and the play itself, typically the Royal Shakespeare film version, did was, like just the chorus of, you know, 50 plus abled actors giving these broadly quite offensive representations of disability, you know, which, then getting like beaten up and brutalised on screen and be like, "Oh, this is fine. This is just what we do to the weirdos."

So that was sort of constantly in my mind when I was working out how to approach this play. And [inaudible 00:15:55] because I also went to the Royal Shakespeare Company, to look at a filmed version of the play that they did in 2007 or -8, I think that was modernised 'cause I was like, "Oh, I wonder, is it possible?" And no, it's as offensive, if not more 'cause it sort of, it was a modern, modern clothes, modern dress, but it's all still just like, "Oh, you're, doing a lotta, just doing the most." Was not good.

And I think the main thing sort of, you know, took three years of doing this, this version and all this kind of stuff, you know, this whole way to come through and to realise that actually the best thing that I can do as a playwright, if I'm writing these roles for people with disabilities, to just allow them to just be themselves and to put a thing, be like, "This is a play for disabled actors to be their whole disabled self on stage and to not have to worry about, you know, conforming to someone's idea of what a character should be."

Anthea:

It sounds remarkable...

Christopher:

Yes.

Anthea:

... and I have to say, I read a blurb about it and I thought, "Yes, I studied that. I studied exactly that at university," and when I was at university, I did identify as being a woman with a disability and I didn't even think about it, you know, and I... and sure that was decades ago, but it's remarkable how much, because it's theatre, we think that things like this are okay and it's such a problematic objectification of these characters. So, I'm so...

Christopher:

Yeah.

Anthea:

... excited that you approached that.

Christopher:

It's, it was as a playwright, it was also really interesting to, I mean, also maybe this is just me, getting older and being like less ego-driven and stuff like this. And in terms of like plays that I have written, I consider this play that came out of my PhD, it's called Factory, I consider it to be probably the best thing that I've ever written, but I also absolutely, like it's not about me as a playwright.

Anthea:

Yeah.

Christopher:

And so the whole thing that I've, and I've put, you know, it's sort of, you know, it, I feel like if it gets produced, hopefully it will one day, then I'll have to be there in the room because the whole point is that also if it needs to be changed, change it. If it needs to be cut like it's very, it's quite wordy in parts and maybe that doesn't vibe with, with some actors, that's absolutely fine. The play should mould for the actors, not the actors mould to the play.

So for the widened thing of having this as an all-disabled cast, I want these people to feel comfortable. I want them to be able to be their best disabled (laughs) selves, and have these roles because also there are so many roles where either it's not disabled actors playing them or it's, "Oh, well you're, you're in a wheelchair," or, "You're in, you know, have some experience with disabilities, so therefore, we should pity you," or, "You should, you know, feel like you should be really, you should be loved. You should be like, you know, evil," or, "You should be, you know, you, this is [inaudible 00:19:07]," actually to have them just be able to, and be able to be on stage and do all these things that maybe they wouldn't otherwise get to do, but also to be like, "Cool, the play is here to support you, not the other way around."

Anthea:

Awesome. Hey, we're running a bit out of time, so I'm gonna take you back to New Balance. Tell me a little bit about your thoughts of the intersection of being queer and disabled in Australia. What does your play examine?

Christopher:

In terms of myself and my own experience? The way that the play is structured is that it goes through the experience of, of growing up queer and sort of is non-linear, and then similar to my accident. Sort of about halfway through, there is a big shift and a big, like, change and it's sort of like suddenly we're dealing with disability, like come out of... not come out of nowhere, because obviously that's what the play is, but it's sort of it is suddenly this is a huge focus in my life when before it was something I hadn't considered.

And so, for me, it talks a lot about these two things are working, kind of working together, but then also at the same time finding a lot of queer and gay experience, I think, a lot, you know, gays say the darndest thing (laughs) - and often, what they say is very ableist. And particularly with my own experience of, like, "Yes, I'm queer. Yes, I'm disabled, but I'm also, you know, white, I'm cis (laughs), I am, you know, middle class." All of these things, I feel, it feels ingenuine to not check these, but also to be like, "I have, I have these things, but I'm also a lot better off than other people."

Yes. I mean, I think as well, part of that is... so in, in the show itself, there is about five or six audio-recorded interludes of other queer disabled people, talking about their own experience. So in the first version, we had sort of a late-minute addition. And so there were these moments where, like, the lights would come down and we had closed captioning, and I would just, I would read these interludes off the closed captioning. And that was like fu-... like quite good, but people were acting a little bit confused by that.

So this time, where I've gone and (excuse me, uh, throat, throat). This time, I've gone and found these people and interviewed them and done sort of audio recordings of them so there are actual other people coming and talking about their own experience as well to sort of try and diversify that. "This is one thing. Here are lots of other things." Try and I guess, yeah, bring as many different voices to the table as possible.

Anthea:

That's awesome. Thank you so much for joining us.

Christopher:

Thank you so much for having me.

Anthea:

New Balance is on from the 19th to the 23rd of April at the Old Fitz Theatre in Woolloomooloo on [inaudible 00:22:07] country in Sydney. More information in our show notes. This is Anthea Williams on 2RPH with Sideshow. We're going to do the What's On a little bit differently this month as I've had to travel to [inaudible 00:22:25] because of a death in the family. So, Hanna has prerecorded. She's going to tell us about And... Breathe at the National Film and Sound Archive and Crip Rave Theory at PACT.

Hanna:

For World Earth Day on 22nd of April at the Arc Cinema at Canberra's National Film and Sound Archive at 6:00 PM will be a series of films under the title of And... Breathe. Most notably, there'll be a dance film by Sue Healey and Liz Lee which features a wide range of both disabled and non-disabled dancers in natural landscape. Now I was involved in early discussions on this project, but due to the pandemic, my involvement was put on ice, but I am so excited to see what this project turns out to be.

The National Film and Sound Archive building is wheelchair accessible with access to the building available from the south-facing entrance on Liversidge Street. There are also bathrooms with accessible facilities located in the main building. A wheelchair is available from the National Film and Sound Archive reception. For hearing assistance, there are T switch loops available in the Arc Cinema and the theatrette and assistance animals are recognised and welcomed into the building.

One small note, for those with immunologic disability: sites like this, these old heritage buildings in Canberra are not always accessible. I know that for me personally, early on in my illness, the National Film and Sound Archive cinema was a place that was made specially available to me by the generous support of staff who sometimes allowed me to watch films from up in the projector booth (laughs). But as my illness progressed and the bacterial load of buildings became a really big trigger for my system, it became one of the buildings that was no longer accessible for my body. So, that's just a warning out there to anyone for whom that's a particular access need. So, I won't be seeing this particular film in person, but I really look forward to being able to see the final results in some other form and some other way and I hope that there's some of you out there who can make it along to the event on the night.

Crip Rave Theory, your favorite club night outside the club, April 15th, Saturday. It's a bit before 3:00 PM. Maybe you've wandered down from the closest Erskineville Station or maybe you've rolled in from Newtown Station, the closest wheelchair accessible stop, or been dropped off to the doors of the single story street level access warehouse venue, PACT Centre for Emerging Artists, or maybe you log on to the live stream from the safety of your home. You arrive early to fully experience the grounding of a welcome to country before the first few hours of the party begin. Maybe you're on the ramp access deck watching a tide of friends mingling, shifting on the gentle slope of the courtyard. Or maybe with a drink from the bar, you've sunken into the recline of available seating where nearby, a guide dog also sits by his provided water as you both bask, soaking up the golden glow of the low volume lush beats and the last rays of the setting sun as dusk settles. You adjust your mask to your face or collect one of the masks made available for those who've forgotten and enter into the darkness of the warehouse.

Inside, a DJ's performance, dancing, but no strobe, no haze. Floor slopes gently, but the more level areas are marked. There's seating for those who want it and a sensory chillout zone to rest and recharge as the rave picks up, but continues on into the darkness of night. Crip Rave Theory is described as both a party and a proposition, drawing on disabled crip knowledge to create more intersectionally accessible rave spaces. As the response to inaccessible and exclusionary club space, Crip Rave Theory centers and celebrates all bodies that are sidelined in traditional nightlife culture, a space for community, connection, pleasure and self-expression.

I missed out on their first sold out party last year due to illness, so I am incredibly excited to dive into this year. For tickets, firstly, this is an 18 plus event. There is a limited allocation of free tickets available for disabled and First Nations folks. Please email cripravetheory@hotmail.com to secure yours. Crip Rave Theory state that, "Our disabled community's wide and includes those who self-identify as crip, disabled, deaf, hard of hearing, neurodiverse, mentally ill and/or chronically ill." Free tickets are also available for companion card holders who can email the same address to book.

First release tickets are set into two price tiers. $10 tickets for people who self-identify with any of the following terms, communities or experiences: LGBQTIA+, Black, disabled, people of color, culturally & linguistically diverse, regional or remote, First Nations, or unwaged. And $15 tickets for allies and/or people wanting to pay more to support the space Crip Rave Theory is trying to create. For those who cannot attend the event in person, DJ sets will be live-streamed and these tickets are $5 and a streaming link will be shared with those who buy these tickets on the day of the event, which includes me. I'll be having my own bedroom rave via the livestream and I cannot wait.

Crip Rave Theory is disability-led, committed to community leadership, solidarity, collective care and continued learning and growth. Their lineups always include a majority of people who identify with an experience or disability. They strive to book across as many intersections as possible, and if you'd like to get in touch to discuss your access requirements prior to the event, please email at cripravetheory@hotmail.com.

Anthea:

Thanks for joining us this month. To take us out, here's Rose Motion and Suga Sweet.

Outro music:

(singing)