Paper Swans – Soho Theatre, London

Writer: Vyta Garriga

Director: Simon Gleave

We see very little new absurdist theatre now, and in a notoriously tricky genre, Vyta Garrigan’s new play Paper Swans is a welcome if imperfect attempt to capture the social commentary and wild flights of fancy that have distinguished this category of works. Arriving at the Soho Theatre for a brief run many of the characteristics of absurdist work are present, including cycles of repetition, a sense of meaninglessness in scenarios and motivation, as well as layers of dream-like states where one character appears to be in control of the transitions in time and through the layers of narrative.

On his late-night patrol around the park, guard Peter discovers a young woman making paper swans on a bench with the intention of covering the frozen lake in them, a task she insists must be completed unseen and before dawn. Unconvinced by her explanation, Peter tries to get her to leave but finds himself unable to depart until he elicits a proper explanation.

Paper Swans is essentially a tussle between two people and (at least) two ways of seeing the world. The Guard figure represents order and normalcy, his declared purpose in the closed park being to deliver ‘safetyness and emptiness,’ the one being dependent on the other, and his struggles with the woman are fundamentally about control. One of the trajectories for Peter across this 55-minute work is the psychological move from the safety of his own life into something more imaginative that the swan-maker shows him.

The woman, who later claims her name is Anna, is a volatile force, a kind of benign anarchy that chooses to exist beyond reason and beyond expected boundaries. She makes the swans solely because she does; her presence in the park is just a fact, and at every turn she deliberately avoids meaning, slipping through Peter’s fingers as he tries to grasp the purpose of their encounter. And as she leads him through what might be multiple real or imagined versions of their first meeting, the ground shifts a little each time, sometimes taking them to a fantastical realm and at others to a gory, much more violent outcome.

Is there perhaps an added nuance in the Guard being unable to make a paper swan, but only produces paper boats that is part of the barrier between them or an example of the control that Anna exerts on the environment? Performed by Garriga and Daniel Chrisostomou, the heightened acting style is very well pitched, adding a level of surreal intensity to this two-hander that takes an already exaggerated approach and stretches it further.

Yet absurdist theatre always has a point to make in some way, so this piece could be clearer about the purpose of those different scenarios and how the overall impact of their story changes the audience as well as the characters. What is the ultimate takeaway from the cumulative experience of the scenes they play over and over again, and is there an underlying political or social commentary that the creative team are projecting through their work?

Runs until3 May 2025