SHORE BREAK Comes to Adelaide Next Month

Is it possible for someone who has banished themselves to an island to escape the torture of living in the real world, to find a way back to society? Writer / Performer Chris Pitman explores this theme in his debut one man show Shore Break at the Goodwood Theatre from 3 May - 13 May.

Shore Break is the story of a man brought up in an emotionally illiterate, culturally bereft household in a far-flung suburb of a city. His life bumps through childhood, adolescence into adulthood; consumed by awkwardness, confusion, anger and an inability to connect meaningfully to relationships and community. Something is broken but he cannot seem to put the pieces together.

He turns toward the ocean for connection. A place that can hold his unnamed feelings and keep his secrets. We meet him alone in his camp in an isolated dune, sandwiched between the desert and the ocean. He's been there for years, waiting for the perfect wave to break; because only then, for a few precious moments, can he feel alive. Old memories overtake him and he must unravel his emotional entanglement, try to see what he has done, who he is, and how he can keep living. Is there a chance he can find a road back to civilisation?

In bringing this work to life Chris Pitman drew on his own research and experiences with those on the fringes of society, travelling to remote campgrounds and regional areas along the coast.

"I have spent my fair share of time alone. Mostly dreaming in landscapes, and mostly by the ocean. I have often seen people there, living out solitary existences, backs turned to the world, diluting their troubles into the water and I've always been fascinated by them. How did they get there? What did they do? What was done to them? Is this the way they live their last days, or will they find their way back to people? I finally decided this was a story I wanted to tell.

I found myself in conversations with isolates in remote campgrounds, while chasing the increasingly impossible dream of uncrowded waves. Some were surfers, fishers, hunters, and some were just there for the landscape, for the space, the desert and the ocean, stretching all the way to the sunset. Everyone's got their story to tell, and it was the people who had disconnected over time who I enjoyed being with. Mostly goodhearted people, born into generational emotional illiteracy, who couldn't find a foothold, and slipped through the cracks of a communal, civilised life. Here they ended up in remote fringes of our country, stranded and alone. I drew on all these connections and experiences as a background for Shore Break."

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