Helium

Created by the company.

Bella’s senile grandfather, Max, a decorated war hero, keeps sending her parcels. Inside each one is an inflated helium balloon. Without anything to hold onto in her own life, Bella returns home in order to grasp the meaning of his mysterious obsession.

The audience move through a number of enclosed spaces on their own hunt for Max’ hidden message, from the inside of a Lancaster bomber, to a children’s birthday party in Victorian London and finally high up in Dresden Cathedral.

Helium was presented at the Barbican Theatre, London as part of bite08 from

3-20 September 2008.

Funded by The Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust and co-produced by barbicanbite08, London with support from the University of Huddersfield.