Freefall

Arthur Miller once wrote that Marilyn Monroe could spot an orphan in the room, simply by recognizing the “bottomless loneliness” in their eyes. This sentiment seems strung throughout Michael West’s Freefall, which centers around A, a middle-aged man who was orphaned at a young age and separated from his sister. The play begins with him suffering a stroke and collapsing – the rest is spent in limbo between consciousness and unconsciousness, through fragments of his memory.

Superbly constructed by director Annie Ryan, Freefall tells a heart-breaking story of the irrevocable need for human connection, and how the love we experience during our childhood—of lack of it—haunts us for the rest of our lives.

Incorporating multi-media live footage, quirky sound effects created by onstage musicians, and seamless shifts between various dimensions of A’s memory and hallucination, Freefall attempts to recreate the sensation of being trapped in a surrealist dream. The characters fizz with chemistry, and the sense of foreboding amongst the audience is immense.

Although the melodramatic script jars slightly to begin with, a talented cast delivering brilliant performances combine to produce an utterly immersive show, such that an awareness of reality beyond the stage disappears entirely – an example of theatre at its very best.