Written by Indra Wilson

Co-directed by Cora Bissett and Niloo-Far Khan

Review by Orly Benn

Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose – Big Yin

The care and generosity of Indra Wilson’s performance begins in the queue entering Gilded Balloon’s ‘other yin’, where patrons are handed silver-star stickers to use in acts of personal remembrance and celebration of lost loved ones. It is immediately clear that Wilson’s Float is as much about human connection and celebration as it is about performance, loss and grief. Wilson’s play- based on personal experience- creatively aligns pregnancy loss and health within a metaphor of space-exploration; they begin a relationship, training with ‘Nasa’ (father-of-child), before getting told that, as a result, they will become a real-life ‘astronaut’ (parent) and begin preparation for ‘mission’ (childbirth).

Their controlled and energetic performance works in coalescence with episodes of conversations from 1960s NASA interviews projecting on a backdrop screen, excavating a beautifully chaotic and expertly-paced hour that narrates a journey from anticipatory excitement to insurmountable grief at the news that the ‘mission’ will ‘fail’. The chaotic collaboration between light, sound, projection (and confetti) meets its visual climax at minute 45 where Wilson stands at the back of a littered stage as an enlarged reflection of the Barbie in front of : the architect of their childish dreams to become an ‘astronaut’ in the first place, and the epitome of what cannot be.

Where Float really soars, however, is in Wilson’s celebration in love gained rather than life lost; their introspective, dimly-lit and strikingly-still speech wondering about what ‘could have been’ if ‘Nasa’ had not left them for a ‘solo mission’, whilst potentially extending for a couple too many ‘what-if’s, is quickly overcome by a reunification of love between Wilson, their mum, and their best friend Abby, who converge in a net of female care and support in the face of their grief that is systemically considered, for want of better words, ‘not sad enough’ to authorise time off from work.

Even after the end of the show, Wilson’s closing spiel (canon for any Fringe performance) welcomes their audience to sit in the raised lights of Other Yin whilst they ‘get-out’ the show, with no rush to exit the space of communal grief and care (felony for any Fringe performance). Float is both a visually creative theatrical exhibition and a callout to communalise and celebrate, wherever possible, the love that is born in grief.

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