Gobscure presented a dramatic performance of Next Swan Down The River Might Be Black at the Burton Taylor theatre. This play portrays the heartfelt story of three characters, all suffering in varying ways. Kay, a bipolar patient, whose happier moments involve singing, defies authority on a number of occasions, snapping from conversing with her fellow patient one moment to abusing the staff the next. Cerys suffers from depression, and you only get to see a glimmer into her past to understand her present condition. Cerys and Zee, a nurse who’s about to graduate, bond over intimate, and often unprofessional heart to hearts, where Zee reveals some hidden truths of her own. 

There isn’t much let up in the harrowing world of the psychiatric ward, save one small scene which takes place is the ward garden. Kay produces her ‘friend’ named Bob, who turns out to be a sock, and puts on a small silly sketch, creating laughs in the audience. This is a small relief, and about as light as the performance gets. 

Maria Thomas, Helen Embleton and Ambur Khan all gave solid performances in this small cast of three. The actor who truly stood out was Helen Embleton playing the role of Kay. Her mannerisms were realistic, down to the bug eyed look, swaying and fidgeting, bringing her character to life.

One factor which let the performance down was the positioning of the characters on the stage. A number of important scenes happened low down on the stage, where characters were sitting on the ground, which proved unfortunate for everyone in the audience, bar the front row, who struggled to see what was actually happening. One scene in particular was blocked rather strangely as Zee joins Cerys on her bed, but positioned herself with her back to the audience, hiding both characters' faces.

Other than that, I would recommend Next Swan Down The River Might Be Black as a sincere performance dealing with real issues surrounding mental illness.