Swell – Old Red Lion, Angel

Writer: Rufus McGrath
Director: Charlie Collinson

Reviewer: Christine Stanton

“Oar-iginal Idea”

3.5 / 5

Jacob Poole is all on his own, rowing around in the middle of the ocean, stocked up on supplies, with just his phone for company.

It started out as a small challenge to raise money for a cause close to his heart, after his girlfriend received a life-changing health diagnosis. His goal was to document the progress of his ocean rowing mission, and hopefully pick up a few followers and donations on the journey. After a over a month at sea, his plight goes viral, donations start flooding in, millions of viewers are tuning into his live Q&As and media networks are reaching out to find out more about his heartfelt fundraising mission. The more followers he gains, the more he has to lose, and even more dangerously, to prove.

Writer and performer Rufus McGrath is utterly convincing as an online viral sensation, the over-friendly vlog introductions and excitement as he gets his first 100 viewers excellently done. He manages to fully convey the feeling of being alone at sea remarkably well, the silence as he stares out at sea brushing his teeth or talking to himself to keep his sanity creating the isolated atmosphere required to make the impending feeling of dread set in for the audience. The Q&A sessions are well-integrated into the script to help move the plot forward, and add some context about his journey that would otherwise be hard to communicate. There is a good balance of natural humour and unease working alongside each other, with Charlie Collinson’s direction ensuring that the intrigue is constantly simmering in the background as to where the storyline will go.

With so many possible plotlines, and the question of honesty being highlighted in the blurb, the expectation (and hope) is that more boundaries would be pushed within the story, but it surprisingly keeps it quite safe. Although the show is still very enjoyable, there is never a big pay off or moment where everything comes together, it (in fairness, quite aptly with the setting) just floats along, never quite extracting it’s full potential. That being said, the taste of fame and the slow descent into trying to keep up with his followers demands that comes with it, makes for some fantastically engaging scenes, the isolation combined with his newfound fame, morphing him into a person he slowly struggles to recognise – a brilliant comment on social media, and how viral fame can impact people.

A very oar-iginal idea that captures the determination of the character and the vast emptiness of being at sea extremely well, with a great performance from McGrath.

Runs until 20th March 2026