Float
★★★★★ Luminous
Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose (Venue 24): Wed 30 Jul – Mon 25 Aug 2025
Review by Rebecca Mahar
In a world premiere from writer and performer Indra Wilson, F-Bomb Theatre brings Float to the stage of the Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose for a run covering the whole Fringe.
Float is a playful, pissed-off, philosophical monodrama on pregnancy loss and navigating its aftermath as a young genderqueer person who really, really wanted to be a parent. Wilson’s autobiographical script couches their own personal experience with and journey through pregnancy loss in the metaphor of space exploration.
Indra Wilson in Float. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic
Indra Wilson always wanted to be an astronaut, first inspired by Barbie, who went to the moon before any man. They apply to and are accepted at NASA— which is quickly revealed as an analogue for the man whom Wilson became pregnant by.
NASA is represented by a speaker with glowing multicoloured lights, which Wilson carries and caresses, speaking into a microphone with a distortion effect to represent his voice. They are teammates on an unexpected mission, but one that Wilson embraces with joy and the support of family and friends.
bereft
When NASA suggests that they “abort the mission,” and leaves Wilson, they are determined to carry on solo and reach its goal themself: a tiny, infant star.
But as the show makes clear from the start, not all goes as planned, and the mission fails despite Wilson’s best efforts. They are left bereft with neither teammate nor longed-for star, floating through space, trailing pain and questions and anger behind them like the tail of a comet.
Indra Wilson in Float. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic
It’s a concept that could easily become gimmicky, but Wilson’s writing and open-hearted, unashamed performance ground it in reality while allowing it to wander through the vast, unknowable sky. Captivatingly co-directed by Cora Bissett and Niloo-Far Khan, Float is a triumph for F-Bomb Theatre, whose mission is to champion the voices of women and people of marginalised genders.
A tech-heavy production, Float comes off without a hitch. Isadora Gough’s simple, nimble set design is a desk chair and array of cardboard boxes containing the various props and other set pieces with which Wilson fills out her world. Most of these boxes are lit from the inside, much like Wilson’s space helmet (from costume designer Nicki-Martin Harper), illuminating her from unknown places as she traverses space.
moody and evocative
Lighting design from Adi Currie is moody and evocative, saturated colours reflecting of the shining silver of Wilson’s space suit when they fall into a spiral of self-destruction; the glittering blues and ambers of night isolating them in both fear and freedom.
Kirsty May Hamilton’s innovative A/V design rounds out Float’s stratosphere, whether it’s a grainy video of the Apollo 11 team, Ronald Reagan’s speech in response to the Challenger disaster, animation of a spaceship, or simply an array of stars, flying towards us.
Indra Wilson in Float. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic
Float isn’t exactly a happy show, though there’s humour in it, but it’s not a sad show either. It’s an exploration of a reality that’s all too true for so many people, and a struggle that society often expects them to face in silence. It’s an intensely personal story, but by employing their chosen extended metaphor, Wilson is able to create a universal frame in which others who have had similar experiences can see themselves, and know they are not alone.
Wilson writes that “m*therhood, whether longed for, lost, chosen, or rejected, deserves to be talked about with honesty, care, and courage.” In sharing Float with the world they have done just that, extending a hand back after themselves to lift up others to do the same, all stars in a constellation of memory.
Running time: One hour (no interval).
Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose (Other Yin), 3 Chambers St EH1 1HT (Venue 24).
Wed 30 July – Mon 25 August 2025.
Daily (not Suns 10, 24): 6pm.
Tickets and details: Book here on EdFringe.com.
Book here on EdFest.com.*
*affiliate link.
█ During the run of Float, F-Bomb Theatre has partnered with charity Baby Loss Retreat, a portion of ticket sales going to support its work. To learn more and donate, visit www.babylossretreat.org.uk.
Indra Wilson in Float. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic
ENDS
