Theatre
In the November 2025, Paddington The Musical opened in London’s West End. The show’s lyrics and music are based upon the book written by Jessica. The show received a total of 14 What’s On Stage Awards nominations, including Best New Musical for Jessica Swale & Tom Fletcher.
As playwright, Jessica’s first play Blue Stockings (Shakespeare’s Globe) won her an Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright nomination and is now on the GCSE drama syllabus. Nell Gwynn transferred from the Globe to the West End starring Gemma Arterton, and won the Olivier for Best New Comedy.
Theatre writing includes Thomas Tallis (Wanamaker Playhouse), All's Will that Ends Will (Bremen Shakespeare Company), adaptations of The Jungle Book (Northampton), Sense and Sensibility, Far from the Madding Crowd (Watermill), Stig of the Dump and The Secret Garden (Grosvenor Park, Chester) and two new plays, The Mission, about illegal adoptions in the 1920s and The Playhouse Apprentice.
Jessica founded Red Handed Theatre Company in 2005 and as Artistic Director won the Peter Brook Empty Space Award for The Belle’s Stratagem alongside an Evening Standard Best Director nomination in the Evening Standard Awards. As a director, work includes Fallen Angels (Salisbury Playhouse), Bedlam (Shakespeare's Globe), Winter (Theatre Newfoundland, Canada) and Sleuth, Sense and Sensibility and Far from the Madding Crowd (Watermill Theatre) and numerous productions at the Arcola, the Park and Southwark Playhouse.
Paddington The Musical Credit: Isha Shah
Reviews for Paddington The Musical
Daily Mail “Marmalade magic! Paddington The Musical is off-the-scale cuteness”
The Guardian “they’ve looked after this bear quite splendiferously”
The Standard “One of the most wonderful theatrical creations in years”
Digital Spy “The Musical is an absolute triumph that you need to see”
What’s On Stage “a paw-fect stage adaptation”
Theatre Weekly “Paddington has found his perfect home on stage, and it is glorious"
London Theatre “everyone’s favourite small bear becomes a massive West End hit”
Broadway World “London’s favourite bear: welcome, wonder and the spirit of inclusion”
The Observer “an irresistibly joyful love letter to London…it will run and run”
Tatler “this singing bear will capture your heart”
Financial Times “Paddington The Musical brings the stowaway bear gorgeously to life”
The Times “this singing bear will capture your heart”
The Telegraph “a funny, feel-good sensation that looks set to run and run”
The Stage “sweeter than a marmalade sandwich”
Time Out “takes to the stage like marmalade to a sandwich in this big budget musical extravaganza”
Radio Times “Michael Bond's beloved bear is being very well looked after”
In Development
The Mission
A new play about the secret adoption culture of the 1920s, The Mission is a dramatic exploration of parenthood, class and the shattering consequences of family secrets.
Original Plays
Thomas Tallis
Living under four monarchs, Tallis was forced to adapt his compositions to suit their religious demands, but at what cost? In Swale’s vividly imagined play, we follow the contrasting fates of Tallis and a young priest, from the dissolution of the monasteries through Mary’s bloody reign, via encounters with a young Elizabeth and the mysterious Dr Dee, to their dramatic conclusion.
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Blue Stockings
1896. Girton College, Cambridge, the first college in Britain to admit women. Tess Moffat and her fellow first years are determined to win the right to graduate. But little do they anticipate the hurdles in their way: the distractions of love, the cruelty of the class divide or the strength of the opposition, who will do anything to stop them. The play follows them over one tumultuous academic year, in their fight to change the future of education.
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Nell Gwynn
Set in late 17th century England, when women were first allowed to act on stage, Nell Gwynn charts the rise of an unlikely heroine, from her roots in Coal Yard Alley to her success as Britain’s most celebrated actress, and her hard-won place in the heart of the king. But at a time when women are second-class citizens, can her charm and spirit protect her from the dangers of the court? And at what cost?
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Adaptations
The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book tells of Mowgli the man cub who battles for survival in this heart-warming coming-of-age story about a boy raised by wolves in the jungle. With the help of his animal friends, including Bagheera the panther, Balloo the bear and Kaa the python, Mowgli outwits the cruel and powerful tiger, Shere Khan, and learns the law of the jungle.
Sense and Sensibility
Eminently sensible Elinor pines for quiet, kind-hearted Edward Ferrars, but the impulsive Marianne loses herself in the idea of her hero on horseback, and for a girl who feasts on poetry and music, what else is there to do in Devon but dream of rescue?
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Far From the Madding Crowd
When Bathsheba Everdene inherits a farm from her uncle, no-one expects her to run it alone. But our spirited young heroine will not be deterred and eagerly takes up the gauntlet. She rises impressively to the challenges of sheep farming, but the trials of the heart are harder to overcome. Caught between a pair of suitors - the kind and dependable shepherd Gabriel Oak and the prosperous eligible bachelor William Boldwood, her choice seems hard enough. Then the dashing Sergeant Troy appears over the horizon, with a swagger in his step and a dangerous secret in his past. Who will she choose?
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The Secret Garden
It's 1910, and life for the spoiled young Mary Lennox is pretty easy. She spends her days luxuriating in the Indian sunshine whilst her aristocratic parents rule the Indian Raj. But when an unexpected twist of fate leaves Mary orphaned, she finds herself on her way to England to live with her distant Uncle in Misselthwaite Manor on the Yorkshire Moors.
Will Martha melt Mary's frosty exterior? Will Mary uncover the source of the cries in the night? And will her curiosity lead her to solve the greatest mystery of Misselthwaite, the legend of the Secret Garden?
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Stig of the Dump
The play tells the story of lonely8-year-oldd Barney, who goes to stay with his grandparents on the chalk Downs of southern England. Suffering at the hands of the local gang of bullies, the Snargets, Barney’s luck begins to change when tumbles over the edge of an old chalk pit into the rubbish-dump den of Stig.