The Captain

The Captain description

The Captain is a solo show about Captain Matthew Webb, the first man to swim the English Channel.

The fastest crossing has taken six hours and forty-five minutes, and the longest went four times across without stopping. But the first is the one that matters, and the one everybody remembers. Adam Riches tells the story of Webb, a humble man whose extraordinary feat, the show argues, ought to be far more celebrated than it is, and who died as he lived, chasing the impossible. It is a tribute to the bravery, the fortitude and the sheer outright insanity of the attempt.

The show won a Fringe First Award at the 2026 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Telegraph called it "unmissably good", The Scotsman "a rollicking yarn" and The List "intense, immersive and unexpectedly moving", while Fest Mag praised "a commanding performance from Riches". It runs for around 60 minutes, contains moments of audience interaction and plays Park200, the larger of Park Theatre's two auditoriums, alongside a return of Riches' earlier solo show Jimmy.

The show is written and performed by Adam Riches and directed by Tom Parry. Riches won the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Show in 2011 and was named Time Out Comedy Person of the Year. Parry is one third of the comedy group Pappys, wrote the Amazon Studios film Your Christmas Or Mine and its sequel, and is Performance Director on SNL:UK. The production is presented by Park Theatre Productions and TIGCO.

Adam Riches performs the piece alone. He is known for his portrayal of Sean Bean on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and for his Radio 4 series The Guns of Adam Riches, and his television credits include Detectorists, Top Coppers, Horrible Histories and Drunk History. He recently appeared at Soho Theatre in Adam Riches and John Kearns ARE Ball & Boe.

Book now for an award-winning, funny and physical account of one man's swim into history.

Playing at Park Theatre

Clifton Terrace, Finsbury Park, London, N4 3JP GB (venue info)

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