Balloon

Chain Lightning Theatre wraps up their 1999-2000 season with Karen Sunde’s work of historical fiction BALLOON. The play is set between the American and French Revolutions on the eve of Benjamin Franklin’s departure to France. The characters include Franklin; the widow Catherine Anne Helvetius; Turgot, the first finance minister to Louis XVI; Cabanis, the young physician and Morellet, a writer & scientist. If one were to walk in on these friends, they would all be speaking out of turn. If you lingered beyond the first drink you would realize how they each adore Franklin for his writings, his discoveries and his passion to fight for a dream that will sweep the world, Liberty. There is one story that Franklin cannot share, that of a man and his son whose loves and ambitions bend to serve their nation.