Soho Theatre – until 3 May 2025
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
4****
Why does everything have to have a reason?
This is the question Anna (Vyte Garriga) asks the confused security guard (Daniel Chrisostomu) who finds her sitting on a park bench in the dark making paper swans.
Flabbergast Theatre bring Garriga’s darkly enchanting absurdist work to the stage with style. Valentina Turtur’s simple yet beautifully evocative stage design plays with traditional Swan Lake sets and the sight of Garriga dressed as a ballerina on this set conjures an expectation of tragedy before you even take your seat.
Crisostomo immediately sets the tone as he enters, moving like a steam train across the stage before he spots Anna. The park is locked. How can she be avoiding the cameras and the eyes of the other security guards sitting here on the bench? Anna’s only explanation is that she must finish before the morning – before she is seen.
This plays out in repeated iterations, we see the pair dancing happily, Anna menacing the guard – as a story needs blood, Anna acting like his therapist, co-operating to complete Anna’s task, amongst others. The constant thread is his inability to comprehend her even when it appears they are making progress. He is in uniform and she is an artist. He insists they are locked inside the park – trapped – while she blithely continues her mission. He can only make paper boats, not swans. Who knows what it means – we all understand and take from the play differently – as it should be with such skilful absurdist theatre.
Garriga and Chrisostomu’s movement around the stage is balletic and sometimes hypnotic. His repeated mechanistic, or ritualistic actions matching certain phrases are delightful and Henry Maynard’s lighting along with Nick Hart’s music shifts the mood from tender to threatening effortlessly.
Thought provoking, funny and captivating, Paper Swans is a real treat for fans of the absurd.