Theatre review: Captain Ferguson’s School for Balloon Warfare

TAKING the true-life American mission to develop balloons as a means of waging warfare prior to their entry to the First World War, this one-man play from actor David Nelson apparently fictionalises the career of Captain Tommy Ferguson, a young and enthusiastic officer who pursues what he believes to be a visionary breakthrough in combat.

Captain Ferguson’s School For Balloon Warfare

Assembly Roxy (Venue 139)

Star rating: * * *

More than just an ambitious military career man, however, Ferguson is an adherent to the early wave of aerial science and exploration, a friend of the Wright Brothers who was the first man to fire a machine gun (both sighted and blindfolded) from an aircraft.

It’s this side of Ferguson which inspires the play’s final and most interesting act, with earlier scenes given over to arguments with the top brass about his plan’s cost and potential, and a light audience-interactive “training” sequence featuring a bit of semaphore and balloon-spotting. Yet the finale ups the ante, with plucky Kansas man Tommy going on the inevitable suicide mission in order to defend the lives of his guys, digging deeper into his psyche and the folly of his grand ambitions. “It is I who will rule the air,” he cries earnestly, “I shall be Prometheus tied to a rock.” Yet Icarus is inevitably the closer comparison.

• Until 27 August. Today 11:15am.