'Balloon Girl' rises to the challenge of time-travelling delights

REVIEW: 'Balloon Girl' at Sherman Theatre

The Sherman Theatre's latest creation from writer-director Hannah McPake honours the life and legacy of Cardiff’s own Balloon Girl, Louisa Maud Evans.

Splicing AI technology and a futuristic tycoon space-race with a time travelling journey of discovery, the show explores themes of risk, bravery, adventure and loss. 

We first meet Trumpian tech-billionaire Carol Gaudron (Elin Phillips), who is about to launch the first civilian-crewed mission to Mars.

Though it's soon clear that the health and safety credentials of the mission may leave a little to be desired, and they come under scrutiny of some fiercely keen local reporters.

The evening before lift-off, a time-travelling Victorian teenage ghost turns up in a hot air balloon (hate it when that happens), and Balloon Girl sets sail with Carol and a talking seagull on a distinctly Scrooge-like mashup journey through 2,000 years of Welsh history, complete with Romans, Vikings, and Victorians.

If that looks like a lot to cram in, it feels like it in the first half.

In establishing its themes and characters, there is a lot of one-paced urgent shouting and some rocky turbulence as we pinball between time periods.

It feels like it strains to hold together, seeming borderline overambitious, which given the period ballooning theme could be ironic or clever. Let's give it the benefit of the doubt.

If the first half of Balloon Girl experiences some mild form of altitude sickness, the second is a more steadily steered journey with a much sharper sense of direction.

A clear plot emerges through hazy Roman Invasions and Viking clouds, and by the closing stages we're all fully rooting for Team Louisa against Team Gaudron, albeit with some sympathy for Carol.

Stage designs are impressively varied and engaging throughout. They include space mission control, a Viking ship, a historic Swedish land, the Cardiff Great Exhibition of 1896, and Nash Point beach in 1986 featuring a masterfully puppeteered toddler, as well as the gloriously animated features of Mari Flur (playing Eloise/ Louisa) on screen via online video link up, first in a Bristol bedroom, then in a spaceship.

The shocking foundational truth that runs through the production often gives pause for thought. It's mind-boggling to imagine the 1896 spectacle in Cardiff, the incredible risk involved in the planned balloon ascent and parachute descent of Louisa Maud Evans, that its organiser was fined five pounds before trying the same thing again in Glasgow.

Our emotional journey is a significant one. Audience laughter flows frequently at times, there's no small sense of fear and danger, with closing scenes packing an existentially weighty punch around life, mortality, loss and death – particularly of parents. There's one powerfully written scene about conflicting beliefs in the afterlife.

Balloon Girl is intended for those aged eight and up. Going into the play, my own eight-year-old daughter was nervous around the pre-warned themes of death and grief, but live theatre at the Sherman once again succeeded in generating a euphoric response like nothing else can.

On the next morning's bleary-eyed approach to school, she reflected on the full range of emotions prompted by the show, and how it added to the experience.

Sometimes it's good to grapple with rough ropes. They can transport you to whole new places. 

Balloon Girl is at the Sherman Theatre until Saturday 24 October. You can find out more and buy tickets here.

REVIEW by Mark Hawkins

Photo by Kirsten McTernan