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Swallow
Three strangers are about to face their demons head on. Balanced precariously on the tipping point, they might just be able to save one another – if they can only overcome their urge to self-destruct.
Painful yet playful, poignant but uplifting, Stef Smith’s Swallow takes a long, hard look at the extremes of everyday life. This powerful and poetic play premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, as part of the 2015 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
- GenresPlaysDramaContemporary
74 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 20, 2022
4.5, rounded down.
This fascinating play presents three women on the verge: Anna is an agoraphobic who hasn't left her flat in years; Rebecca is nursing the wound of a breakup and her own self-inflicted gouge with a broken piece of glass to her face; Sam, née Smanatha, is tentatively trying out the male body she feels she rightfully belongs in. The interaction of these lost souls makes for some riveting dramatics, with a surprisingly humanistic ending.
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/201...
This fascinating play presents three women on the verge: Anna is an agoraphobic who hasn't left her flat in years; Rebecca is nursing the wound of a breakup and her own self-inflicted gouge with a broken piece of glass to her face; Sam, née Smanatha, is tentatively trying out the male body she feels she rightfully belongs in. The interaction of these lost souls makes for some riveting dramatics, with a surprisingly humanistic ending.
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/201...
February 5, 2020
Read for class.
October 4, 2021
Swallow has certainly brilliant moments. After all life is made of moments and fragments. Unity and steady continuity barely would fit in real life. People change, people resist the change, people refuse to change, and all that would result in a change, whether in their own lives or the lives of others.
In Swallow people are struggling, to admit, to survive, to change, to feel, to live... Smith has used a symbolic language to unfold the narrative, the allegories work well in the context. and despite all the distancing techniques used in the play, the characters are tangible, they could be identified with easily, if the reader is ready to think profoundly about the mysterious rather desperate moments of life. We will all find a way at the end. Which way we choose is all that makes us different individuals. Surviving creatures.
In Swallow people are struggling, to admit, to survive, to change, to feel, to live... Smith has used a symbolic language to unfold the narrative, the allegories work well in the context. and despite all the distancing techniques used in the play, the characters are tangible, they could be identified with easily, if the reader is ready to think profoundly about the mysterious rather desperate moments of life. We will all find a way at the end. Which way we choose is all that makes us different individuals. Surviving creatures.
September 26, 2020
Loneliness affects us all
Swallow was a play I picked up trying to find texts that I could compare with ‘DNA’.
A fairly simple set-up with just three people- Sam, Rebecca and Anna. Though it’s short, I did struggle to visualise these characters and flesh them out in my mind.
Rebecca appears to be struggling after the break-up of a relationship. Her neighbour, Anna, hasn’t left her flat for a long time and it’s not clear why. Sam, who was born as a woman but now lives as a man, begins a fledgling relationship with Rebecca but is brutally attacked by teens on the street and then rejected.
Watching this would allow further interpretation, and I think much of the appeal would come from the visual engagement with the characters.
Swallow was a play I picked up trying to find texts that I could compare with ‘DNA’.
A fairly simple set-up with just three people- Sam, Rebecca and Anna. Though it’s short, I did struggle to visualise these characters and flesh them out in my mind.
Rebecca appears to be struggling after the break-up of a relationship. Her neighbour, Anna, hasn’t left her flat for a long time and it’s not clear why. Sam, who was born as a woman but now lives as a man, begins a fledgling relationship with Rebecca but is brutally attacked by teens on the street and then rejected.
Watching this would allow further interpretation, and I think much of the appeal would come from the visual engagement with the characters.
September 22, 2022
Swallow by Stef Smith is an excellent example of layered storytelling. All three characters in this play have amazing stories. From Sam who is trying to find their way in the world as a trans man, to Anna who suffers from agoraphobia. It is hard to read at first, but it gets much easier as the stories start to intersect. This is one of the few plays that have made me tear up on reading it. Every character wants to grow and heal. Something any reader or potential audience could relate with. I would love to see this show performed at a theatre near me. Until then, I'm glad to have had a chance to read it.
January 23, 2019
Couldn’t put it down really enjoyed this play was easy to imagine on stage
March 13, 2021
This play is so fantastically written and covers some really REALLY important issues and subject matters, it’s 100% worth a read.
July 2, 2022
Great play. Fab, easy read, strong characters.
January 2, 2025
A profound look into how one can feel trapped in their own life. Wish I studied it for Drama A-level.
June 18, 2025
*2.5 ⭐ rounded down
2nd book of the year!!! WOAH!!! And it's literally June!!!
Also this play reminded me of Silence by Harold Pinter and honestly that is not a good thing to be compared to ☠️
2nd book of the year!!! WOAH!!! And it's literally June!!!
Also this play reminded me of Silence by Harold Pinter and honestly that is not a good thing to be compared to ☠️
July 16, 2022
I had to do this in class. Well, I didn't have to, but my group and I chose to so we kind of roped ourselves into this one.
It's okay... in a totally not okay way, but I want to be generous. I'm sure it would be alright if I were reading it to read it, but I was reading it to choose an extract and perform it. It is written like a stimulus for a devising piece in that there are no stage directions throughout any of the book and so all pieces of dialogue and the actions that accompany that are open to your own interpretation. This would be all well and good, if there were a lot more aspects of the characters that are definite. For example: my group spent time listing facts about the characters and we found that we had, at most, around five or six definite facts for each of them. As a reader, it makes it very difficult to envision the characters, as we are given practically no definitive information or setting for what's going on.
The characters are also the whiniest group of, supposedly, thirty to fourty year olds that I have ever read about. I honestly completely forgot that they're even supposed to be that old because all of them are whinier than a class of twelve year olds who have just been given maths homework. I really did not care about this script at all by the end of it, and I'm honestly angry that the playwright, who is also incredibly whiney, decided that because she was sick of male representation, she would write a play about 'three women'... and then proceeded to write about a transgender male character.
TL;DR: The script is written lazily, and the characters are whiney. Do not reccomend.
It's okay... in a totally not okay way, but I want to be generous. I'm sure it would be alright if I were reading it to read it, but I was reading it to choose an extract and perform it. It is written like a stimulus for a devising piece in that there are no stage directions throughout any of the book and so all pieces of dialogue and the actions that accompany that are open to your own interpretation. This would be all well and good, if there were a lot more aspects of the characters that are definite. For example: my group spent time listing facts about the characters and we found that we had, at most, around five or six definite facts for each of them. As a reader, it makes it very difficult to envision the characters, as we are given practically no definitive information or setting for what's going on.
The characters are also the whiniest group of, supposedly, thirty to fourty year olds that I have ever read about. I honestly completely forgot that they're even supposed to be that old because all of them are whinier than a class of twelve year olds who have just been given maths homework. I really did not care about this script at all by the end of it, and I'm honestly angry that the playwright, who is also incredibly whiney, decided that because she was sick of male representation, she would write a play about 'three women'... and then proceeded to write about a transgender male character.
TL;DR: The script is written lazily, and the characters are whiney. Do not reccomend.
July 2, 2021
Though I would absolutely adore getting to design this work, I've found it a bit forgettable and strange in an unpleasant way. Very few impressions of this work stick with me a few months later, and for that reason I can only give it three stars.
December 15, 2016
Poignant, tough but tempered with hope. Stef Smiths play is a wonderful examination of how we continue on.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews