Theatre / Reviews
Review: How I Learned to Swim, Bristol Old Vic – ‘A joy to watch’
From the playwright Somebody Jones comes a deep dive to the complexities of grief, intertwined with poignant history and legend.
At the centre of this one woman play is Jamie, who at the age of 30, is learning to swim. Her relationship with water is a complicated one, intensified by her position as a young Black woman, and multiple water-related traumas.
Jones’ play was shortlisted for the Womens’ Prize for Play for Playwriting, and the Alfred Fagon Award in 2021, and is an elegant one-hour journey through Jamie’s consciousness.
is needed now More than ever
Frankie Hart as Jamie in How I Learned to Swim
From an accident at a pool party as a child – “in a party of nine year olds, screams aren’t a sign of danger” – to her British swim instructor, to her relationship with her water-loving brother who vanished four months previously, the narrative shifts, sometimes unclearly, until her motive for learning to swim becomes clear.
Frankie Hart draws you in with her performance as Jamie, holding the eye of the audience, and shifting seamlessly between characters and accents.
Debbie Duru’s simple set design of a sterile cuboid of white and blue tiles is highly effective, allowing Hart to maximise use of the small space. It’s a sensual set, as wisps of smoke shimmer like light in water, and blue illuminations bounce off the walls, while water noises drip and crash throughout, curated by Nicola T Chang. You can almost smell the chlorine, which Jamie likens to the smell of anxiety.
Storytelling is at the centre of Hart’s performance, as she gracefully uses movement to add deeper dimensions, carefully and beautifully choreographed by director Emma Jude Harris.
We float through references to the mythical Mami Wata, an African water spirit, all the way to civil rights activist David Isom, who broke the colour line at a segregated pool in St. Petersburg, Florida in 1938.
Kevin Burns is also mentioned, the first British Black swimmer to compete at an Olympic Games in Montreal in 1976, followed by Paul Marshall, the second Black British Olympian swimmer four years later.
There is also a reference to Drexciya, “an underwater utopia for the almost enslaved” – an alternative Black history of a deep-sea civilisation formed by the 1.8 million slaves who died in the Atlantic, created by the Detroit electric duo of the same name in their 1992 album Deep Sea Dweller.
The plot moves quickly and it’s a lot to take in, with some important references undoubtedly going over audience members’ heads. Despite a simple set and singular cast, How I Learned to Swim is perhaps more of a visual than an emotional experience. However, this is beautiful and succinct storytelling, and Frankie Hart is a joy to watch.
How I Learned to Swim is at The Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic on September 17-21 at 8pm, with an additional 3pm matinee show on Saturday. Tickets are available at www.bristololdvic.org.uk.
All photos: David Monteith-Hodge
Read next:
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
