17 – 21 September
Jamie (Frankie Hart) is a thirty-year-old Black woman, and she is taking her first swimming lesson. Looking down into the far from welcoming depths of the swimming pool she recites the mantra ‘legs, legs, legs, arms, arms, arms.’ This does nothing to allay her fears. She recalls that as a nine-year-old at a kids’ pool party she was told that ‘the water won’t bite.’ That didn’t help either, though her brother Baz had confidently dived in. Why, given that the water still terrifies her, is she taking swimming lessons now? How I Learned To Swim vividly depicts one woman’s struggle to take that first plunge, but it also opens out to consider a range of other topics, including Black history, guilt, grief and the acceptance of loss. Written by Somebody Jones and directed by Emma Jude Harris, this hour-long, one-woman play delivers those weighty themes with a lightness of touch and a great deal of wry humour.
Designer Debbie Duru’s set represents the blue-tiled side of a swimming pool where Jamie nervously grips the chromed rails of the pool ladder, finding that chlorine and anxiety have pretty much the same smell. Ali Hunter’s chilly lighting and Nicola T. Chang’s watery sound design skilfully create the sense that for Jamie the swimming pool is a threatening, alien environment. But in Frankie Hart’s assured and thoroughly engaging performance it quickly becomes clear that Jamie’s relationship with water is multi-layered; there is much more to it than simply fear. She is haunted by the loss of her brother.
The narrative expands to present Jamie’s story in the context of segregated swimming in the USA, and it looks back to the transatlantic slave trade, with its legend of Drexciya, the undersea world found by African slaves who were thrown overboard. We also learn of the sporting success of pioneering Black swimmers in the UK. There are times when How I Learned To Swim loses focus in trying to cover so much history.
Having begun in the mundane setting of a public swimming pool, the story concludes in the wild, wide ocean. There is more than a little magical realism in the final moments, and there will be those who will find credibility is stretched too far. However, How I Learned To Swim is an ambitious play that features writing of a very high quality throughout, and that high standard is matched in full in Frankie Hart’s captivating performance.
★★★★☆ Mike Whitton, 18 September, 2024
Photo credit: David Monteith-Hodge
