Helios ★★★★☆

Alexander Wright and Phil Grainger came back to the Adelaide Fringe Festival for 2024 bringing with them their award winning shows The Gods The Gods The Gods, Orpheus, Say It & Play It, as well as this new offering Helios, which demonstrates how Greek mythology can be translated into modern day relevance.

Wright is our sole narrator, recounting to the audience the story of Phaethon (son of Helios) – or Tony to his friends. 

This story (as Wright tells us), is more about Phaethon than Helios. Bringing it into current relevance, we are introduced to Helios, who is an absent father working as a pilot, and clearly hasn’t properly mourned the death of his elder son. He copes with this by throwing himself into work. Phaethon is coming of age in rural UK, and exploring with alcohol, underage driving and his sexuality. Despite his father’s absence, Helios still has a strong hold over Phaethon, with Phaethon clinging to the belief that on his 18th birthday, Helios will let him fly one of his planes. Helios has also been an influence over Phaethon’s musical taste, with the audience getting a flavour of some of the 70s era rock songs that they both would listen to.

Despite this being a one person show, you are immediately drawn into the account with the intimate setting, rhythm of the speech and dialogue, and dim lighting all playing a part. Wright also gets assistance from audience member volunteers to read parts of the dialogue without it feeling intimidating.

The original music composed by Grainger, is also an integral part of the performance, with it building to a climax at highly emotive parts of the show.

Even if you’re not a fan of Greek mythology, this show is definitely worth a watch. Helios is a powerfully performed piece that is highly engaging, bringing with it a modern twist and new audience to ancient Greek mythology. We can only hope it is brought back for Adelaide Fringe in 2025!