Freefall is both like and unlike any of Corn Exchange’s previous work. Director Annie Ryan seems to have somewhat moved away from her signature use of ‘white face’ and Commedia dell’Arte. This would lead audiences to believe that perhaps this production is more ‘contemporary’ than the Corn Exchange has shown us before.
However, unlike any previous productions by this theatre company, Ryan has adopted new techniques in the form of projections onstage of both pre-recorded video and live recordings from a camera onstage as well as sounds affects made visibly side stage by the actors using voice and props – most memorably when an actor mimes throwing up and the sound is made from splashes in a bucket, making the most iron-stomached audience member squeamish. For me the adoption of video technology and self-made sound affects replaced the need for traditional Commedia, and I felt the audience left feeling like they had seen an Annie Ryan production.
The story is fragmented, the set is easily adapted into several locations and the cast of five fill a cast of twenty. While sometimes a bit hard to follow Freefall left me reflecting over illness, life, adultery, childhood and true to the Corn Exchange, how we all treat each other in life. Freefall is worth a look even if just to see something a bit different.