Recent Reviews

THE BELLE'S STRATAGEM, Southwark Playhouse, 2011

★★★★ 'Theatrical enterprise like this makes you proud to be British' ★★★★ and CRITIC’S CHOICE
Libby Purves in THE TIMES ‘ Time Out Magazine


★★★★ 'Witty, spirited and eminently revivable' ★★★★★ 'Witty, clever and polished, a faultless cast.
Michael Billington in THE GUARDIAN 
Public Reviews


★★★★★ 'An unmissable entertainment' ★★★★ 'A delightful production, a Georgian gem’
Fourthwall Magazine
 Exeunt Magazine

‘A delightful new production… Jessica Swale must surely soon become a household name and is willingly supported by her whole creative team.’ British Theatre Guide

THE RIVALS, Southwark Playhouse, 2010

Celia Imrie shines in The Rivals. Imrie has a ball in Jessica Swale’s spirited revival of Sheridan’s classic. She brings an interesting vulnerability to a part which is all-too-often played solely for laughs. There are a lot so other serious stage actors around her… Robin Soans is also on fine form.
★★★★★ , Tim Walker, Sunday Telegraph
 
‘A Comic Gem’… Jessica Swale’s production is strongly cast, free from directorial ego and causing something of a rush on the Southwark box office. A devoted period production...even if the budget is small, Swale's production evokes an 18th-century feel through Laura Forrest-Hay's music for flute, recorder and guitar.
★★★★ , Michael Billington, The Guardian

We will be hearing more of Jessica Swale: her production of Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s glittering comedy of 1775 is a glittering success. It has the heady joy of celebration and the sharp irony of Sheridan’s middle-age wisdom. Wakefield’s Lydia is like a predatory gazelle, innocent but calculating: a gem of a performance. Harry Hadden-Paton is the secret lover, touchingly decent and reassuringly manly. Robin Soans is his father, a fine example of English decency and cunning. Celia Imrie is Mrs Malaprop, ageing nobly like a battleship and malapropping the language like a master butcher.
★★★★ , John Peter, Sunday Times

I’d love to be able to recommend Jessica Swale’s production of Sheridan’s The Rivals over at the Southwark Playhouse - because it’s so near damned perfect. There are superb, stars-in-the-making performances from Harry Hadden-Paton and Charity Wakefield as his fancifully-minded intended Lydia Languish. There’s terrific support from old hands Robin Soans, as Sir Anthony Absolute, and Celia Imrie, playing that lunatic of the lexicon, Mrs Malaprop. Beginning with a cheeky Bath-ballroom rejig of Beyonce’s hit ‘Single Ladies’, the evening delivers conspiratorial mischief and happy laughter in spades. Unfortunately, the entire short run is already sold-out.
★★★★ , Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph

This production is so nimble that Sheridan's polysyllabic shenanigans might seem to belong in Southwark's 21st-century bustle. Ella Smith is a peach of sincerity. Christopher Logan cuts a fine comic caper. It's clear, quick and funny; those who have been queuing at previews aren't being disappointed.
Susannah Clapp, Observer, 17 January

PALACE OF THE END, Arcola, November 2010

‘In Robin Soans's blistering performance, I felt I learned something new: that Dr Kelly's outrage at the lies told about weapons of mass destruction was matched only by his self-loathing for his complicity in the deception…Directed with spareness and clarity by Jessica Swale, these stories may not change anyone's mind about Iraq. What they do is jolt our sleeping consciences and use individual stories to explore the wider tragedy.’
★★★★ Michael Billington, Guardian

All three monologues could be presented as stand-alone pieces, but as a trio, combined with three outstandingly sensitive performances, they make a remarkably powerful tour de force. While it deserves a larger audience than can be accommodated in the Arcola’s smallest studio, the intimacy is yet another one of the production’s greatest assets. The pieces may be miniatures in length, but there is nothing small about them. I haven’t seen anything quite so powerful this year.
 ★★★★★ , Julia Rank, Music OMH

‘This staging of Judith Thompson’s triptych of monologues about Iraq is nothing if not timely. But even if it hadn’t arrived at such an apt time, Jessica Swale’s production would still exert considerable power. The combination of some fine, fine writing and Swale’s superb use of the Arcola’s intimate second studio leaves the audience dazed and unsettled…There isn't much time left for the Arcola in their current home; if this is one of the last things staged in this space, it makes for a memorable way to bow out.’
Natasha Tripney, The Stage