Finding their balance in the freefall

Opening next week in Galway, then travelling to Edinburgh before taking to the Abbey stage in November, Freefallhas proven a massive hit. Yet at the peak of their success it's been a difficult year for its creators Annie Ryan and Michael West

PROFOUNDLY MOVING and mischievously playful, Freefall, which opens at the Galway Arts Festival on Monday, is in part an anatomy of a downwardly spiralling nation rocked to its foundations and confronted with the same life-or-death questions as the play's central character. Written by Michael West, the play charts a man's journey back through his life, as he hovers on the brink of life and death after suffering a massive stroke.

The play's title Freefall, is also a good word to describe the last six months for Corn Exchange Theatre Company, who, despite the critical acclaim and box-office success of their most ambitious show yet, were hit with a 48 per cent funding cut in January. From an outsider's perspective it appeared that the company was being punished at the height of its creative powers for having taken a risk, both in terms of the lengthy development process for the production (the gestation process for the show was almost a year and the final production was rehearsed for eight weeks rather than the traditional four), but also because of its experimental free form, the company's signature style. For some reason it is seen as less audience friendly than mainstream productions of classic plays, despite the company's consistent commercial success.

Freefallrepresents the work of a company at its peak, achieving an impeccable, indivisible, cohesive flow that proves the importance of the developmental process and the powerful effect that an ensemble can achieve when that elusive rhythm of synchronicity is found.

However, as Freefallstrikes a note of optimism, a poignant gesture towards hope in its closing moments, so Corn Exchange has harnessed its difficult circumstances to create a new energy, which they hope will provide them with opportunities to keep creating the work that has made them such an exciting force.

From the living room of their mews home, Annie Ryan, founder and director of Corn Exchange, and playwright Michael West, seem an impossibly glamorous couple. With West’s height and Ryan’s slight build, they are all angles and cheekbones and ice-blue eyes; an arresting-looking pair. They moved into their stone-walled cottage 20 years ago. Discussing their working methods, a fantastic energy radiates between them. They do not finish each other’s sentences; it is not that sort of dynamic. Rather, they contradict and correct each other; refining each other’s ideas; rigorously interrogating the other’s position on things.

Ryan won the award for Best Director and West the award for Best New Play with Freefallat this year's Irish TimesTheatre Awards.

Freefallwas the third time that Ryan and West came together in collaboration with the company on a new piece of writing. Dublin By Lamplight(2005) and Everyday(2007) established a working relationship that relied on ensemble performance and transformation; "the most vital thing about theatre," West says, "is that someone can turn into anything at all". In Dublin By Lamplight, it was the "crazy changing costume backstage moments" that inspired West's play, which retold the foundation story of the Abbey Theatre through a variety of fictional versions of historical characters and which especially revelled in the device of actors playing actors. Ryan elaborates: "The example I like to use is my favourite moment from Everyday, where Mark O'Halloran played a character who goes looking for something in his fridge, steps inside it, and comes out on the other side in a supermarket."

In Freefall, the actors once again play many roles and perform many functions, moving furniture, becoming furniture, making the sound effects live from the wings. The working method involved a lot of improvisation, throwing ideas in, taking them out, finding the balance. Ryan explains with her hands, as if the "energy" she talks about is a ball that she could throw across the room at any moment.

Improvisation is a key word for Ryan and West, who are currently developing another show, with actor Paul Reid, “a sort of one-man-action-movie”, West explains, which they hope to produce next year; future funding decisions dependent, of course. Improvisation, the ability to react spontaneously to changing circumstances, is precisely the quality artists need in these difficult times, Ryan says, “when no-one really knows what their position is in relation to funding. There is no point in assigning blame. In many way the Arts Council are in the same position as us artists: they are trying to do the impossible with meagre resources. What we need is to find solutions together.”

West says, "There are even positive things that might never have happened had we not been so severely affected. We might never have been invited to the Abbey, say," where Freefallwill take up residence on the main stage for two weeks in November. "Well, actually, that is not true," Ryan interjects, "we had already had the discussion about working at the Abbey, but I had no interest in working there as a freelance director, so it is great that the whole company is involved."

“That is true,” West adds, “but it might not have happened had the Abbey’s funding not been cut, had they not needed to make different kinds of programming decisions; had we not been so visibly struggling . It was a win-win situation for us both.”

The company are also looking abroad at opportunities for co-production. Having just returned from showcasing Freefallat the prestigious Wiesbaden New Plays From Europe festival, the pair are poised to take advantage of these new relationships where they can. Germany was an education, Ryan says. "They just didn't understand the concept of freelance actors and directors without a permanent company or a building. The theatre we were performing in employed 600 people and had an annual budget of €35 million. That just seemed so astonishing to us. But from their perspective, the drawback of such security can be complacency, and they were really impressed with the risks that we were prepared to take. We are just grateful," she continues, "that we have Freefallout there this summer, so that we can still show what we are capable of."

As Corn Exchange heads to Galway, then Edinburgh and Mexico, before returning to Dublin to bring their year to a close, new audiences will surely be grateful too – to have the opportunity to witness one of the most remarkable pieces of theatre to emanate from Ireland in the last few years.

Freefallruns from July 12 to 17 at Black Box Theatre as part of the Galway Arts Festival; August 6 to 29 at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh; from November 23 to December 4 at the Abbey Theatre