Captain Ferguson’s School for Balloon Warfare

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The story of the US army’s attempts to use hot air balloons as weapons during World War One is an intriguing premise for a play, but unfortunately this one-man show doesn’t capitalise on it.

Based on real events, Isaac Rathbone’s narrative centres on the eponymous Captain, who is determined to show his army superiors that balloons can serve not only for aerial surveillance but for stealth weapon deployment as well. This hour-long play follows him from instructing a ‘balloon school’ of young recruits to ordering his helium-filled fleet over Germany.

David Nelson, as Captain Ferguson, attacks the play with admirable aplomb, and there are some engaging moments—treating the audience as pupils in his balloon school comes off well—but the writing is just too thin to make it more than momentarily diverting. The result is that whatever pathos and humour the subject matter could have provoked never materialises. Even a scene in which Ferguson tells of the vast loss of life in one initial operation fails to move, and another in which he ascends in his balloon basket against a backdrop of stars feels clichéd.

The production is visually pleasing, with an appropriately sepia-toned set and era-specific props, but the use of projections, to show Ferguson’s three superiors as talking heads, isn't as interesting as it wants to be. Like the Captain’s somewhat misplaced grand ambitions for his balloons, this show never takes you to dizzy heights.