Six actors plays three women, three are the younger incarnations of themselves, three are older.  The theatre programme will not tell you who is who because that confusion is a part of the plot of Isley Lynn’s prize listed play.  The Swell was  shortlisted for The Women’s Prize for Playwriting and viewing it you can see why.

The older women are Sophie Ward, Shuna Snow and Viss Ellliot Safavi, the younger, Jessica Clark, Ruby Crepin-Glyne and Saroja-Lily Ratnavel.  The elder or younger characters will watch their other self from the corner of the stage.  It is Jessica Clark as Flo (short for Emma!) who explains about her passion for surfing and the title of The Swell. She describes the companionship of surfing, how there must be other people there for safety, that you never go surfing alone.  She also describes the travel, up sticks and off to an exciting swell. The pleasure she gets from surfing is orgasmic and her animation in recalling it, is infectious.  

Flo is here for a marriage.  One character describes her heart swelling with love so we have a parallel between the surfing heights of a wave and the feeling for some one else.  Scenes chop in and out of the past and the present with Nicola T Chang’s specially composed music in between.