Paper Swans
Why does everything have to have a reason?
Paper Swans is a one act play set in a closed park at night.
A security guard on his patrol finds a young woman in a ballet dress sitting on the bench making paper swans. He tries to question her and find out what exactly she is doing and why. That locks them in a continuous never ending loop of having to encounter each other again and again and find out the meaning behind those paper swans. However, each time they meet, there is a slight change in the situation from the one before.
It is a piece drawing on the traditions of absurdist theatre, visual symbolism and the playwright's personal experience as a woman from a post-Soviet country (Lithuania) coming to the UK. It explores the themes of oppression, freedom of speech, self-discovery and what it means to pursue dreams that one is not allowed to have.
Supported using public funding through Arts Council England.
Playwright: Vyte Garriga
Director: Simon Gleave
Associate Director: Henry Maynard
Performers: Daniel Chrisostomou, Vyte Garriga
Composer and Musician: Nick Hart
Set Designer: Valentina Turtur
Producer: Flabbergast Theatre
Reviews
★★★★★ – BOUQUETS AND BRICKBATS
“As soon as we note that Paper Swans is a Flabbergast production, we know we need to see it. We know that – whatever else – Paper Swans is sure to be both experimental and innovative. We’re not wrong… it’s gloriously done. I love it…[The] choreography is so precise and disciplined that every moment is intense, heightened to the nth degree. There is no let-up here. The hour flashes by and, as the actors take their bows, I realise that I’ve been holding my breath. I don’t know for how long
"Balletic, intelligent, elusive and sometimes funny, with fine supporting music, this is great theatre for those who love the art form"
"This absurdist play is confident in what it is and sits neatly in the world of “Waiting for Godot,” “Zoo Story,” and “No Exit,” with its mix of the surreal, the human, the nightmarish, and the inevitable." "...two confident professionals skilled in their artistry weaving a tale that dips unexpectedly into horror…It is off-kilter and discomforting, thought-provoking and compelling, intelligent and complicated, as the audience searches for sense in the senseless."
"an extraordinary piece of theatre that’s a gut punch to the senses and will have the viewer thinking about its implications for a long time afterwards"
"Paper Swans is dark and unusual but really sucks you in...it calls for the freedom to act unexplainably, something you don’t realise you long for until you see a show like this."
TOTAL THEATRE (DOES NOT GIVE STARS)
"The play is an open book... It is a great text, carefully staged, visually beautiful, and performed with great gusto. No, we don’t need to have all the answers…"
