One of the most exciting things about new Irish writing is that it is a mirror on to our present society. One of the most frustrating things about much of new Irish writing is that, while it should embrace larger themes and put them in a recognisably Irish context, well, more often than not it doesn't. We all get a kick out of seeing Dublin inner-city types cavort about our stages, or even better, that jumped up D4 crowd; it is hard to imagine such characters having much appeal, apart from being provincial curiosities, on a world stage.

In Freefall, Michael West has achieved a universality of experience that would play anywhere. Despite the Munster origins of our main character, played by Andrew Bennett, there's nothing that would prevent anyone, from Berlin to Burbank, from identifying with his experience. A middle-aged man suffers a stroke; he becomes stuck in his head, and we see his life flash before our eyes.

This is a sophisticated idea that becomes fully embodied through the warmth and poignancy of the writing, and through the humanity of the performers.

Bennett is joined by Janet Moran, Ruth McGill, Louis Lovett and Damien Kearney, and as directed by Annie Ryan, they move seamlessly from reality to memory, from the present moment in the hospital to the past, a past full of pain and joy and hope and dry rot.

His life hasn't exactly been a bed of roses, but he's lived it honestly, and with great kindness. Taken as read, it seems to be damning him with faint praise; seeing it enacted, it is as laudatory an epitaph as any of us might like to earn.

Funny, moving, and creatively and beautifully staged, Freefall might just mark the day when Irish writing grew up. You don't need to crib from a history book while watching this play; nor do you have to have intimate experience of either Ballymun or Ballsbridge.

Whilst undeniably recognisable in its own context, the themes of West's text go beyond our shores, and, perhaps, the play will go some way to putting Ireland on the contemporary theatre map in a way it has never been before. -- SC

Freefall runs in Project Space Upstairs until 24th October www.projectartscentre.ie