Review: PAPER SWANS at Soho Theatre

Date: 28th April 2025

Stars: 5

Paper Swans is one of those shows that creeps up on you. It doesn’t explode onto the stage or shout for your attention. It just sits there quietly at first – on a bench, in a park, late at night – and slowly draws you into something far more layered than it seems.

At the heart of it is a simple set-up: a security guard finds a woman in a ballet dress folding paper swans in a place she’s clearly not supposed to be. He asks her to leave. She doesn’t. They talk. Then it all begins again. Same place, same people, same set-up – but different. Slightly. And then again. And again. If that sounds like it could get repetitive, it doesn’t. That’s the magic of it. Each loop shifts just enough to keep you leaning forward, noticing new patterns, new emotions, and questioning what’s really going on underneath it all.

Vyte Garriga, who both wrote and performs the piece, is mesmerising to watch. She doesn’t rely on big gestures or heavy dialogue. Instead, every small movement, every pause, every deliberate tilt of her head seems to say something. She’s playful one moment, unnerving the next, and somehow both lost and in control at once. Opposite her, Daniel Chrisostomou gives a grounded, thoughtful performance as the guard – initially in charge, but slowly unravelled by the strangeness of their connection. The two bounce off each other brilliantly, always shifting the tone just enough to keep you guessing.

It’s directed by Simon Gleave, who wisely doesn’t try to overcomplicate things. There’s a real trust in the script and the performances here – and it pays off. The set by Valentina Turtur is stripped back, letting the focus stay on the dynamic between the characters, and Nick Hart’s sound design adds just the right amount of mood: eerie in places, beautiful in others, and always subtle. There’s something about the repetition that becomes oddly hypnotic, like you’re being gently pulled into someone else’s dream (or possibly a nightmare, depending on how you read it).

What’s clever is how much emotion builds in the silences. The play never spells things out for you, and that’s part of its strength. It lets you sit with the ambiguity. Is this about freedom? Identity? The roles society forces us into? All of the above? Or something else entirely? You can feel Garriga’s personal connection to the themes – particularly her experience moving from Lithuania to the UK – woven into the play’s DNA, but she doesn’t push the message too hard. Instead, she gives you space to find your own way through it.

By the end, you don’t leave with a neat conclusion. You leave thinking. Maybe a little unsettled. Definitely intrigued. Paper Swans is quietly bold and totally absorbing – a thoughtful, slightly surreal piece that plays with time, control, and the strange little loops we all get stuck in.

It’s running at Soho Theatre from 28 April to 3 May 2025, and if you’re after something a bit different – something that doesn’t just tell a story but lets you live inside one for a while – I’d definitely recommend catching it.

You can get tickets here: https://sohotheatre.com/events/paper-swans/