About Helen Wood
Helen has a passion for performing comedy and her work spans a range of styles, from stand‑up and sketch to performance poetry, improv and clowning. In her early adult years, while living in Hackney, she immersed herself in community theatre as both performer and director, relishing the chance to inhabit gloriously eccentric characters. Among her favourites were a sharp‑tongued Mrs Bennett in Pride and Prejudice, a wonderfully severe Mrs Sparsit in Hard Times, and a flamboyantly swashbuckling Captain Hook in Peter Pan.
With Freshwater Theatre Company, the drama‑in‑education organisation she co‑founded in 1996, Helen toured Italy performing multiple roles in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This marked the beginning of many years portraying larger‑than‑life historical figures in educational productions for school audiences across the U.K.
After the success of the two‑hander The Usherettes in 2014, Helen began writing and performing her own solo comedy shows. What Kind of Fool Am I? paved the way for her celebrated trilogy of “Fan Club” shows: The O.S. Map Fan Club, The National Trust Fan Club, and The Foraging Fan Club.
Between 2022 and 2023, Helen stepped away from comedy to create and perform the autobiographical two‑hander Let’s Talk About Philip. Although the play explores the after effects of her brother’s suicide, she felt it essential to weave in generous threads of warm humour, ensuring the piece remained compassionate, human and relatable.
Helen’s 2026 performance work has centred on improv, appearing with Stroud Improv and The Fab Libs in fast‑paced comedy improv, and with Touchpaper in bold, dramatic improv. She also helped create The Mabon Tree, an immersive, multi‑arts experience blending story, character and seasonal magic.