About the Project
Freee Speeech is a solo performance framed as an Evel Knievel style stunt of language. Ryan embodies the totality of speech, from all the different ways to say Hello and How Are You? to small talk, apologies, advertising, technical language, poetry, repetition, sound, and silence.
The structure is simple. For one uninterrupted hour, the audience experiences a fluid monologue that constantly multiplies, shifting through different voices, postures, rhythms, and turns of phrase. Just when one kind of language seems to settle in, it gets replaced by another. Familiar phrases turn strange through repetition. A TED Talk becomes a sermon. Affirmations become a coach’s halftime pep talk. The pace increases, the voice shifts, and the whole thing begins to feel like a runaway train.
The conceit of the show is literal. So often when people talk about free speech, they talk about having the right opinion or saying the bold thing. This show responds by saying, “Oh yeah? You think you believe in free speech?” Then it delivers as much of it as possible. Instead of being about free speech, the performance treats speech itself as the stunt, unrestricted, excessive, and pushed until it nearly breaks.
Production Team
