Christopher Swann is a renowned playwright and director known for their work across various mediums, including radio, TV, film, and theatre. Their latest production, Swing! Swing! Admiral Byng!, is a gripping play that explores the final days of Admiral John Byng, the only Royal Navy Admiral to be executed by firing squad.
This play delves into themes of betrayal, friendship, and legacy, drawing parallels between historical events and contemporary societal issues. As part of Swann’s “Forgotten Trilogy,” Swing! Swing! Admiral Byng! promises to be a thought-provoking experience.
Swing! Swing! Admiral Byng! will run from April 30 to May 17 at The Playground Theatre, with a press night on May 1. Tickets can be booked here.
You’re bringing Swing! Swing! Admiral Byng! to The Playground Theatre. What can you tell us about the show?
It’s set on the last days of the Admiral’s life as time ticks down to his execution. He has been stripped of his rank and is imprisoned in the great cabin of a warship accompanied only by his faithful valet Hutchens with whom he forms an unlikely and moving friendship.
As their relationship evolves he is visited by his friend Captain Augustus Hervey and his sister Sarah, who are riven with guilt that they cannot save Byng from his undeserved fate. Two sailors sing the ballads and broadsides of the day, and on his last night in a dream Byng is visited by a Mr Arouet known better as the philosopher Voltaire.
How did you become interested in Admiral John Byng’s story, and what inspired you to create this play?
I came across the story some years ago and Byng’s fate caught my imagination. As a child I always feared being imprisoned for a crime I hadn’t committed which involved the death penalty so I suppose I felt that a man facing a certain fate would be an interesting character for me to explore.
Also I am heavily influenced by the theatre of the absurd – Beckett, Ionesco and so on – and there is an absurd element to the story which I wanted to explore in dream sequences and imagining what it must have been like to wait and wait for the hour of execution – marked with a terrifying exactness – to arrive. Unlike Godot who never turns up…! I also prefer to write about contemporary themes in historical contexts because I believe there is a resonance of acting out stories that mirror our contemporary world.
The play is part of your “Forgotten Trilogy.” Can you explain the theme behind this series and how Swing! Swing! Admiral Byng! fits into it?
All three plays deal with aspects of death and the pain for those left behind and are based around ‘forgotten’ figures from our history. The first “One Night” is set in a chapel in France on the night two officers enter to choose the Unknown Warrior buried in Westminster Abbey – a soldier from the battle fields both unidentified whose identity is now forgotten.
During this one night they keep vigil and are visited by the ghosts of the fallen and those left behind. It is a reflection on chance and luck and the agony of choice. The second “Up In The Blue” is set in the women’s mess of the Air Transport Auxiliary – known as the “Forgotten Service” – in 1944/5 – one of the women dies and then narrates the second act as a ghost.
It is also about unfairness as this short period was the first time women had been paid the same as men to do the same job. And Byng meet his ghosts although they appear in a dream and the themes of unfairness and being forgotten comes to their conclusions in this play. It is a standalone drama but the three plays do have underlying lying hidden threads.
How do you think the themes of betrayal and legacy in the play resonate with contemporary audiences?
People don’t change – we are what we were. We still make the same mistakes and constantly look for someone else to blame. We turn away and hope that time and events will exhaust the anger and frustration with our misdeeds and bad judgements. No one seems ready to accept where the buck stops in our contemporary world and it is a little depressing. Byng took the blame for something which was entirely the fault of others. The buck stopped high above him but nevertheless he became the only senior commander we have ever shot.
What was the creative process like working with Peter Tate, who plays Admiral Byng, and the rest of the cast?
I first spoke to Peter about Byng about 10 years ago. When I had finally finished the play he told a friend that he wasn’t expecting it to be up to much but we had a reading and he immediately said he wanted to both play Byng and to stage it at his Playground Theatre.
Since then the process has been enjoyably collaborative both with him and with the rest of the cast, four of whom I have worked with closely in the previous two plays in the trilogy. It is a great blessing to be working with a cast who all contribute, trust me to guide them through the various stages of rehearsal and who say they enjoy working with me! So far so good but it is a complex and emotional piece which has much humour as well as dark moments.
What would you say to anyone thinking of booking to see Swing! Swing! Admiral Byng!?
You will be coming to a play whose themes are as current today as they were over 250 years ago. The injustice done to Byng and his flagrant scapegoating to protect the powerful from taking responsibility for their actions is an all too familiar contemporary theme. You will be sung to, laugh and probably cry and see six extraordinary characters grow together, develop friendship, and look for and find closure during the last testing hours of a man’s life.
Swing! Swing! Admiral Byng! is at the Playground Theatre from 30 April – 17 May.
