Free-falling heroine heads to Hobart

It’s no surprise that Tilly Cobham-Hervey lists Mona as the thing she is most looking forward to seeing when she visits Tasmania with her Adelaide fringe festival production of Freefall.

Nor is it a surprise that Tilly’s first name Tilda means heroine in some translations as she comes from a circus background, a place of heroes.

Tilly Cobham-Hervey is a young woman from an artistic family, her mum is a dancer and her dad works behind the scenes as a production manager and designer. Tilly grew up with the youth circus although she doesn’t like handstands!.

Tilly was recently in Tasmania running workshops for the circus festival just outside of Launceston.

I recently spoke to Tilly about returning soon to Tasmania to take part in ‘Freefall’ the term taken from physics and meaning falling without restraint. The production was conceived four years ago by Tilly and her band of actors and friends initially for the Adelaide Fringe Festival and explores issues of trust and facing fears, from actual physical danger to things like fear of ageing. Notably there is a broad age range of participants from Tilly at 18, the youngest to actors in their thirties.

Tilly says she does a monologue in the show written when she was 14 years old and this has now evolved to the perspective of the 18 year old she now is.

Away from Freefall Tilly has been doing some acting and finds it an excellent contrast to live theatre.

Her foray into acting includes two films, one called ’52 Tuesday’ which follows every Tuesday in a year and is about a young girl whose father is in the process of, like his daughter, becoming a woman.

Tilly’s other movie ‘The Girl with one eye’ is also a very deep movie concerning a man involved in a cult and a meltdown from that.Tilly tells me the title is taken from the quote ‘In the land of the blind the one eyed girl is queen’.

Tilly says Whereas theatre involves a lot of rehearsals, film requires fronting up and doing what you are told, immediately.She finds film ‘bizarre, exciting and crazy’.

You can see Freefall with Tilly and her friends at the Theatre Royal on Tuesday the 30th of April, Wednesday 1 May and Thursday 2 May at 7.30 pm and if she has her wish, watch out for Tilly doing some of her circus know how at MONA sometime in the future.
Paula Xiberras