Acting
In the theatre, James is best known for his one-man play Sikes & Nancy - a show that Simon Callow describes as 'a startling and enthralling contribution to the art of the theatre.' Sikes & Nancy has played the West End's Trafalgar Studios, toured extensively across the UK (to venues including Guildford's Yvonne Arnaud, the Connaught Theatre, Worthing, York Theatre Royal Imaginarium and the Mercury Theatre, Colchester) and crossed the sea for a sell-out engagement at Jersey Opera House. At every step, the show has been warmly acclaimed - and James remains the youngest ever actor to create, direct and play all the parts in his own West End production.
James's other theatre credits include Ghost Stories for Christmas (seasonal performances of A Christmas Carol, The Chimes and The Haunted Man at London's Charles Dickens Museum), Lucifer in The York Mystery Plays and the title role in Dracula (for which James won Outstanding Performing Artist in the York Culture Awards), West End appearances in The Ghost Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore (Tristan Bates Theatre) and In the Penal Colony (Arts Theatre), and Dippermouth productions Frankenstein's Creature (Theatre503) and Scrooge & Marley (Waterloo East Theatre).
On multiple occasions, James has resurrected the Victorian actor Sir Henry Irving: in his acclaimed one-man play Irving Undead, as well as the site-specific Winter Gothic (a double bill of Irving vehicles The Bells and The Dream of Eugene Aram). He has featured in two rehearsed readings for horror scholar Jonathan Rigby: Hammer's Vampirella (opposite Caroline Munro) and Nigel Kneale's The Road (opposite Mark Gatiss). James also holds the unique record of having performed all five of Dickens's Christmas Books in a single day, a marathon that he completed at the Charles Dickens Museum in 2017. He became the first actor in history to attempt this feat; Dickens aficionado Miriam Margolyes declared that 'it couldn't have been more vivid!'
On film, James has been the Creature in the one-man feature film Frankenstein's Creature, which premiered in 2018 at FrightFest, Leicester Square. For this bicentenary tribute to Mary Shelley's novel, James was elected Best Male Performance of the Year on The Evolution of Horror and received a Best Actor nomination from Total Film. His other horror film appearances include Double Date (sporting Dan Martin's BIFA-nominated make-up), Rob Savage's lockdown sensation Host (Shudder) and Salt (Fox Digital Studios), and many forthcoming releases: short films Black Mass and The Thing That Ate the Birds - essaying the title roles in both - and such feature films as Vampire Virus, Broadcast Signal Intrusion and The Banishing. For these efforts, Kim Newman has called him 'horror-star-of-the-future James Swanton' and stated that he 'could plainly have a career as Britain's Doug Jones or Javier Botet'.
Whilst at Cambridge University, James appeared in twenty-four productions, including eight for the renowned Marlowe Society (among them three world premieres, Much Ado About Nothing at the Cambridge Arts Theatre, and the Marlowe Showcase at the Actors' Church, Covent Garden), three one-man plays, and the Cambridge Footlights panto The Pied Piper. He also played Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, thus setting the pattern for many future dabblings.
James's other theatre credits include Ghost Stories for Christmas (seasonal performances of A Christmas Carol, The Chimes and The Haunted Man at London's Charles Dickens Museum), Lucifer in The York Mystery Plays and the title role in Dracula (for which James won Outstanding Performing Artist in the York Culture Awards), West End appearances in The Ghost Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore (Tristan Bates Theatre) and In the Penal Colony (Arts Theatre), and Dippermouth productions Frankenstein's Creature (Theatre503) and Scrooge & Marley (Waterloo East Theatre).
On multiple occasions, James has resurrected the Victorian actor Sir Henry Irving: in his acclaimed one-man play Irving Undead, as well as the site-specific Winter Gothic (a double bill of Irving vehicles The Bells and The Dream of Eugene Aram). He has featured in two rehearsed readings for horror scholar Jonathan Rigby: Hammer's Vampirella (opposite Caroline Munro) and Nigel Kneale's The Road (opposite Mark Gatiss). James also holds the unique record of having performed all five of Dickens's Christmas Books in a single day, a marathon that he completed at the Charles Dickens Museum in 2017. He became the first actor in history to attempt this feat; Dickens aficionado Miriam Margolyes declared that 'it couldn't have been more vivid!'
On film, James has been the Creature in the one-man feature film Frankenstein's Creature, which premiered in 2018 at FrightFest, Leicester Square. For this bicentenary tribute to Mary Shelley's novel, James was elected Best Male Performance of the Year on The Evolution of Horror and received a Best Actor nomination from Total Film. His other horror film appearances include Double Date (sporting Dan Martin's BIFA-nominated make-up), Rob Savage's lockdown sensation Host (Shudder) and Salt (Fox Digital Studios), and many forthcoming releases: short films Black Mass and The Thing That Ate the Birds - essaying the title roles in both - and such feature films as Vampire Virus, Broadcast Signal Intrusion and The Banishing. For these efforts, Kim Newman has called him 'horror-star-of-the-future James Swanton' and stated that he 'could plainly have a career as Britain's Doug Jones or Javier Botet'.
Whilst at Cambridge University, James appeared in twenty-four productions, including eight for the renowned Marlowe Society (among them three world premieres, Much Ado About Nothing at the Cambridge Arts Theatre, and the Marlowe Showcase at the Actors' Church, Covent Garden), three one-man plays, and the Cambridge Footlights panto The Pied Piper. He also played Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, thus setting the pattern for many future dabblings.
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'Swanton, a black-humoured Lucifer with the gaunt, haunted mien of an F. W. Murnau film actor, was a sprightly, sly master of ceremonies' - The Press on The York Mystery Plays
'He conveys the miraculous, monstrous creation's rage and confusion through his twisted, sinewy torso (as much a special effect as in any other Frankenstein adaptation) and the power of a tour-de-force monologue ... Swanton's strangulated articulation and deft movement between fleeting happiness, melancholia and triumph is mesmerising' - Electric Shadows on Frankenstein's Creature 'They are extraordinary. Superb. I thoroughly enjoyed it' - Miriam Margolyes on Scrooge & Marley 'Deserves the greatest plaudits and bigger audiences ... From the happy if perversely jolly to the emotionally broken, Swanton conveys every pitch of feeling in an engrossing and compelling manner' - Varsity (★★★★★) on The Hunchback of Notre Dame 'James Swanton (York's answer to Peter Cushing and Vincent Price)' - The Press on Winter Gothic |
'The film is a triumph above all else because of the strength and beauty of James Swanton's transfixing performance. Swanton brings a physicality of performance unseen in previous interpretations of the character: he moves and juts like a spider, crawling with both elegance and threat, making his every subtle motion and dart through the frozen space pregnant with expression: whether tender, violent, or, at its most heartbreaking, lost ... The audience hang on his every word, while his physical gifts allow him to manipulate his voice to reinforce further the voluminous breadth of the creature's interior world: the mind, the heart and soul that cannot be contained. Mirrored by a masterful performance that equally cannot be contained ... A performance of rare power and tragedy by James Swanton' - Movie Ramblings on Frankenstein's Creature
'Reaches another level and creates magic before your eyes ... James Swanton's performance as Quasimodo was, simply put, amazing ... Under Swanton's treatment it became poetry and drama all in one ... The physical representation of the role was remarkable ... Vocally, this man is astonishing ... So painfully heartbreaking that I found myself gripping the edge of my seat ... If we didn't have a limit of five stars then this would get six, for its bravery, atmosphere and wonderful acting' - TCS (★★★★★) on The Hunchback of Notre Dame 'Swanton is brilliant as Jacob Marley's ghost. Ghoulish, expressive, and hugely comical ... Onstage expression and energy akin to something of an early Tim Burton character' - Southwark Weekender on Scrooge & Marley 'Swanton's performance is at once a remarkable and beautiful exposition ... Swanton imbues every word, every syllable, with a kind of electricity that has you hooked from word one and throughout ... An extraordinary physical and vocal performance ... Swanton conjures a series of extraordinary grotesques, giving a beautifully gothic facade to this classic tale. This is an hour spent in awe of two masters, Dickens for his words and Swanton for his extraordinary and superlative interpretation of them' - So So Gay (★★★★★) on Sikes & Nancy 'James Swanton gave us a lanky, ungainly Friar, exploiting his expressive facial muscles to excellent effect: his distress at the end of the play at the role he had in bringing about the tragic outcome was heart-rending' - The Public Reviews on Romeo and Juliet |