With a successful Edinburgh Fringe run already under its belt, Tom Foreman’s Swell is currently touring, and makes a return visit to London and the King’s Head Theatre where it played earlier this year. Inspired by real-life events in a Welsh coastal town, Foreman highlights just how close we are to becoming climate refugees.
On the face of it, the town of Swell sounds like paradise. A coastal idyl loved by locals and tourists alike. But when the townsfolk hear on the evening news that their town has been ‘decommissioned’ life in Swell deteriorates rapidly. Rising sea levels mean that it’s not economically viable for the town to be saved, so nature is to be allowed to take its course and Swell will eventually be returned to the sea.
Foreman paints a gloriously vivid portrait of town life, both before and after the devastating news is delivered. The characters are richly drawn, and it’s easy to imagine them all as our friends, neighbours, or the familiar faces we encounter in everyday life.
The story is told through the eyes of siblings Ava and Josh. Abandoned by their mother, the death of their father left them with only each other as family. Ava always puts others first, giving up a nursing course to ensure Josh could finish school. Now she works in the local café, her boyfriend is a regional manager for the pet food factory where Josh works on the production line.
The climate protesters at the gates of the factory are dismissed as an inconvenience by the main protagonists, until the climate emergency is suddenly on their doorstep. Swell is remarkable in the way it tells this epic story in a relatively small space, charting the changing landscape of a town that is powerless against its fate.
As residents flee and the tourist trade dry up, Adi (Tom Pacitti) is one of the first to leave. He’s already experiencing racism in this ‘idyllic’ town, so a promotion at the pet food factory that involves relocating to Scotland is the perfect solution. He wants Ava and Josh to go with him, but they feel a sense of loyalty to Swell, a connection to their father, and are bound by each other’s desire to stay.
Creating a whole town requires some considerable multi-rolling, the bulk of which falls to Max Beken. But it is as Josh that Beken excels, delivering powerful and passionate monologues that are superbly captivating. The people of Swell turn against each other, more than they do against the council and government who have inflicted this on them. Resentment, anger, and spite build up in Josh until it reaches a shattering climax, which Beken delivers with terrifying clarity.
Rachel Nicholson, as Ava, could be considered the de-facto narrator of the story, for it is through Ava’s eyes and loyalties that we see the true sadness in the demise of Swell. Nicholson too has some hard-hitting monologues to deliver, and this tour-de-force performance is breathtaking.
Foreman, as writer and director, has created an essential piece of theatre that draws its audience in to the heart of a town that is crumbling before our very eyes. Following the success of previous work Big Boys, Tom Foreman is starting to emerge as one of the most exciting playwrights of this generation.
