Free Fall
Writer: Emily Dash
Director: Kip Chapman
PACT, Erskineville
August 14-24, 2019
Free Fall is a moving and provocative work presented as part of the 3×3×2 Festival of New Works at the PACT Centre for Emerging Artists. While Emily Dash takes the opportunity to raise diverse issues and represent various voices, the focus of the play is on the problematic and painful nature of individuality and love.
When we are first introduced to Carmen (played by the writer, Emily Dash) we are made aware of her life circumstances. As she travels in her wheelchair through a central aisle to centre stage, we note that her carer, Eleni (Liz Diggins), follows behind carrying a cord. When on the darkened stage Carmen faces us, her face fully lit by her tray light, we feel her will to live fully, despite her dependency upon physical assistance.
When first we see Millie (Alicia Fox) and Carmen they are playful and flirtatious. Their physical difference, emphasised by Millie’s return from the beach after a swim, and Carmen’s immobility, seems, at the time, unimportant. When Carmen quickly compares Millie’s lyrical evocation of immersion in the ocean to love, Millie’s response is wholehearted but unnerving. “You, me, nothing can touch us,” she says, and we know with certainty that something will.
It is apparent they have different interests as Millie has taken a novel to the beach that she “couldn’t put down” and Carmen’s interest is in physics, but as it turns out, this difference is not merely a matter of taste but of perspective. When we are shown Millie cleaning a mirror in the Spiritual Bookshop we see that her commitment to a less prescriptive spirituality than that of her super-Christian childhood has become part of her self-image. Her beliefs totally oppose those of Carmen, vehemently convinced of the supremacy of “facts” in understanding the value and meaning of life, and unable to tolerate Millie’s reliance on “signs” and intimations.
Is it possible that Millie, who feels that Carmen “is her lifeline – her one tangible hope” and Carmen, who feels that all she wants is to “hold on to Millie”, cannot resolve their differences enough to achieve a satisfying relationship?
There may be other obstacles or complicating factors that interfere with their destiny. In an exchange with Eleni, Carmen reveals that she doesn’t feel sexual attraction or the need to have sex, and later defines herself as a “biromantic asexual”.
This self-assessment may be modified by Carmen’s admission that she would need the assistance of Eleni to have sexual intercourse – a possible inhibiting factor. When Carmen does invite intimacy by asking Millie to dance, the moment is lost when Eleni enters asking for the music to be turned off. It is suggested Eleni may be jealous but it is evident her presence often inhibits a free and open exchange.
Again, their relationship is affected by their emerging friendship with the spirited and generous Megan (Laura Hobbs), who operates her wheelchair manually, and her partner, Shane. While at Shane’s beach house and under the influence of Megan’s ebullience and ability to connect with, and connect others, we see the possibility of a lively and satisfying social future for the two couples. However, the tragic way in which this promise is not fulfilled has a profound impact upon their lives and relationship.
The play ends enigmatically with a symbolic gift from Millie to Emily and beneath the ever-present and suitably multifaceted symbol of the mirror ball.
Rich in reference and cultural allusion, Free Fall is a remarkable play raising contemporary issues while addressing age-old questions of desire and death.
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