Search

Saved articles

You have not yet added any article to your bookmarks!

Browse articles

GDPR Compliance

We use cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies, Privacy Policy, and Terms of Service.

Helios

 
Mel Evans Review by Mel Evans 4 Published: 24 Aug 2023 Summerhall Show Dates: 2 Aug 2023-27 Aug 2023

Helios is a solo show written and performed by Alexander Wright of Wright and Grainger. It’s a beautiful and delicate piece of storytelling that follows the Ancient Greek myth of Helios.

A proper schoolboy adventure

The protagonist is a boy called Phaeton who lives with his family at the bottom of a hill in Yorkshire. Phaeton is sensitive and independent but, for reasons that later become clear, he can no longer get to the top of the hill. We realise that he is somehow blocked.

Phaeton’s dad, Helios, is a pilot and is often away from home. Phaeton brags about driving his dad’s car and flying his dad’s aeroplane in order to impress the boys at school. One schoolboy is particularly bullying, but the relationship soon shifts to one of mutual admiration, and the two boys become very close.

Helios is performed in the round in a small room, enabling us to see the faces and reactions of audience members sitting opposite us. We feel part of an ancient story-telling tradition that goes back to the Ancient Greeks and beyond.

The story is told in third person, but switches into first person for the dialogue. Volunteers from the audience are asked to read in for the other parts.

It’s a proper schoolboy adventure and Wright’s storytelling is paced so beautifully that the excitement and dread build throughout.

The story is written as an epic poem of sorts but Wright’s charming and thoughtful delivery turns what could otherwise be classic and grand into something personal and rather intimate.

There is also a nicely curated soundtrack which contributes to the overall emotionality of the journey.

Like the original, it’s a complex rite-of-passage that explores ambition, peer pressure and recklessness, but at the core it’s a story about grief and love.

Helios is beautiful, and worth seeing (if you can get a ticket!)

Related to this article:

Location:

Performances

The Blurb:

A lad lives half-way up a historic hill. A teenager is on a road trip to the city in a stolen car. A boy is driving a chariot, pulling the sun across the sky. Internationally award-winning 'Masters of storytelling' (FourthWallMedia.wordpress.com) bring a brand-new story about little things that leave big marks. Following on from their hugely acclaimed productions of Orpheus, Eurydice and The Gods The Gods The Gods, join Wright and Grainger in a little room with a tape player and delicate tale to tell.