Showing @ Traverse Theatre, 4 – 14 Aug, times vary
A Fringe First award for Dublin by Lamplight, multi-award winning Freefall; The Corn Exchange have a pretty huge task in surpassing the quality and production finesse of their previous performances. Clearly aware of this, director Annie Ryan offers up a one-man show, masterfully capturing the Everyman monotony of social alienation and mind-numbing office work. Rigorously written and mapped by Michael West, actor Paul Reid uses mime, voice effects and a great deal of sweat to explore the tedium of modern employment, as the audiovisual aligns with a dextrously physical examination of coping with rejection. Abandoned by his father, the parental vacuum eclipsing our protagonist’s pursuit of success is aided by bleak, edgy projections and sound clips, assisting Reid in his portrayal of a man lost and tortured.
Polished and sleek, the projection wall feeds down onto the empty stage itself, blending and snaking its way in with the dark, bounded feel of Traverse Two. As Reid carries out menial tasks, our empathy for his position in the relentless capitalist society which forces us to work longer hours and take shorter holidays (at the risk of not making rent), grows and spearheads our ultimate compassion for the role. With the danger of stagnating and repeating its message, as is the worry with all one-artist performances, Reid’s stage persona holds the attention of the audience with an unassuming charisma, gifted by the detailed level of his mime. As he battles against his inner-demons (literally), a quiet success hangs over this piece: both in its clasping of an innovative and progressive form of physical art, and its ability to wrench the emotions of its audience while lightly entertaining as it goes.
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