By Ruth Cunningham

Ruth Cunningham is a member of Roscommon Youth Theatre and is a Young Critic for 2023.

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I’m not in the centre of this and it’s really annoying me but we’re just going to leave that. So, hello my name is Ruth Cunningham. I am from Roscommon County Youth Theatre (arguablythe best youth theatre) and I am one of your young critics for 2023! This is my review of FreeFalling.

[music]

I’m a bad boy for breakin’ her heart

And I’m free

Free fallin’

[music ends]

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For context, backin June we went to the Cork Midsummer Festival. We got to see three very different performances. Freefalling was my personal favourite.

So this is a one-woman show that’s directed by Lynne Parker and tells Georgina Millers’ life story. We went to see this in the Everyman theatre in Cork.

So. 14 years ago, Georgina Miller, an actor and writer from Limerick, decided to use up her life savings and go abroad to travel the world. During her travels she swam with sea turtles, swam in crystal clear blue waters, fell in love, danced on beaches and skydived. She was really living the dream. Until things took a turn for the worst. She couldn’t move her body properly and no one knew why. If she didn’t treat her mystery condition soon, she would need a ventilator to keep herself alive.

I’m just going to talk about some of the things I really enjoyed about the performance.

Other than the plot, one thing that was really cool about this performance was the set that they built for it. It was almost like a cocooning tree. I don’t know if you have ever been in the Everyman Theatre before. It’s a very big stage. It was very clever to build this set to frame the action. It was like branches that held her together with little lights on the bottom. Lynne Parker used these to illustrate the story as well. There is one section in the story where Georgina goes to Uluru. There is this myth that if you take these rocks from there (lots of tourists do it) it is meant to give you bad luck. Obviously Georgina being Georgina she took them. How they showed this on stage was that all the rest of the lights dimmed and all you could see where the little red dots on branches. I was sat back thinking “Oh my god this is so cool”.

One thing that I haven’t mentioned yet is the fact that this show had and aerial element. For the entire performance (except for the very start and the very end), Georgina was on a harness controlled by Jose Portillo. He would propel her up and down to illustrate the story. She would demonstrate her diving throughout the air – it was very cool to watch. They even used this as a storytelling mechanism. When she had a lot of mobility she was up in the air doing loads of tricks but when she was really ill and she couldn’t move she was down on the ground. I thought this was so clever.

I just want to commend Georgina’s performance. It is so hard to be on stage alone for a minute. The fact she was on her own on stage commanding that audience for the entire performance – It is just mind-blowing. She had the ability to change the entire mood of the piece depending on what she was talking about. There were people laughing, there were people crying. She made us all feel something and I think that is something to be really proud of.

For me the message of this play is that our freedom is finite and we need to appreciate our lives while we have them. Also to invest in health insurance – that is very important. I would advise that if you re going to see this play, be aware that it does talk about very emotional times. It is very heartbreaking. Personally, I got quite upset at parts of it. Just be aware of that before you are going. Be aware that you can always talk to someone if you are having problems after the play because it is important to get those feelings out.

I would give this play a 4/5 stars.

I hope that you take my opinions on board. Obviously someone could have said that they hated it and I respect that [opinion]. I hope that you take this on board and maybe you’ll agree with me. Thank you for listening.