Theatre review: «Balloon Girl» links Cardiff history, a tech billionaire and time travel
Hannah McPake's «Balloon Girl», staged at a Cardiff theatre, builds on the true story of a 19th-century balloonist's young assistant and joins it to a modern tech-billionaire plot. The Guardian's reviewer gives it a very favourable verdict.
A new production called «Balloon Girl», written and directed by Hannah McPake, has been staged at a theatre in Cardiff. The Guardian's reviewer describes it as a thrilling climate comedy that uses local history to comment on today's tech moguls and the space race.
The play rests on the true story of Louisa Maud Evans, a 14-year-old girl from Bristol. In 1896, during the Fine Art, Industrial and Maritime Exhibition, she was recruited to parachute from a hot-air balloon. She had little experience, and an unfavourable wind carried her out to sea. She died in the Bristol Channel.
The story
The show opens with a reality quiz show in which a young woman from Bristol wins a televised rocket trip to Mars. The host is Carol Gaudron (Elin Phillips), a celebrity tech billionaire and a descendant of balloonist Auguste Eugene Gaudron (Keiron Self), who recruited Louisa for the fatal jump.
The plot then moves from satire of reality TV, artificial intelligence and journalism to a time-travelling adventure. Carol is joined by a young navigator, Louisa (Mari Fflur), and a talking seagull (Oliver Wood). The reviewer sees echoes of Dickens's A Christmas Carol: the trio travel to the past and the future, and Carol returns to her own time transformed.
Assessment
The reviewer notes a rich plot and sharp lines, with a serious underlying message about climate and planetary resources. At times events move too fast, but the show stays fun even then. Hayley Grindle's set shifts between small-scale puppetry and large hot-air balloon imagery. The reviewer considers it one of McPake's best productions.
