Making a splash in South London: 'Pool' by Tom Harvey

By Helena Payne

We are definitely heading into summer at the Brockley Jack. The stage is adorned in primary colours, the water shimmers the azure only chlorine can, and deck chairs wait expectantly for visitors to Pool. The piece is set in the hot summer of 1997, when I was nine, but I remember clearly the excitement and expectation of my parents as Tony Blair swanned into Downing Street. Things could only get better, surely? As a native South Londoner I immediately understood the importance of the Lido within the community. The characters that frequent the waters are the stuff of local myth and legend. My cousin’s other Grandfather was one of these relics from a bygone era who swam every day, even when they had to break the ice, even when they had to go at six in the morning to avoid the summer crowds. Tom Harvey, the writer also understands that the Lido is the heart of community. It is a place for family, friends and freedom to expunge the soot that invariably finds its way into every pore of a Londoner’s skin with more-or-less crystalline waters.

The Brockley Jack’s commitment to giving a platform to exciting new work under the artistic direction of Kate Bannister cannot be ignored.Pool is one of a number of pieces of new writing in the theatre’s Write Now Festival. It is everything Fringe theatre can achieve and more.

Darren Beaumont as Rob provides the soul of this show. His character is a beautifully observed portrait of a man on the periphery of society and perhaps the edge of his sanity. He lives so vividly within the character it feels as if Rob could have been written for him. The gentle rhythms of life poolside are shattered as Blair’s reforms threaten to close the institution. Rob is not going down without a fight and the play reaches its climax during a rather surreal rain dance. With one of the most detailed sets in a Fringe venue I have ever seen and delicate performances we assume that Pool is a macrocosmic Kitchen Sink drama, but these expectations are subverted with the arrival of Rob’s deceased father played with presence by Alan Booty who seems to hover over the water. With ripple lighting effects the strong realism built up throughout the rest of the play melts away as they begin a duologue that provides the highlight of the evening.

There is strong work from the rest of the ensemble, especially Rachel Howells as the long-suffering, no nonsense Stephanie. Jonathon Kemp provides a suitably vile and purposefully homogenised sycophant, lost to the banalities of bureaucracy as he slithers up the greasy pole. The threat is established and all the Life guards must choose on which side of this picket fence to stand. Harvey seems to suggest that whenever there is change, there are always losers as well as potential winners. However whether you choose to be a victim or not is up to you. Rob, a man who has let himself be mocked and pushed about until he is sleeping rough on the deckchairs round Pool finally finds a purpose in life. Now committed to saving the pool, he begins to save himself, rectifying his fraying relationships and bolstering his self-worth. Beaumont’s physicality completely changes, he transforms from a hunched underdog into a heroic resistance fighter opening up his considerable wing span and commanding the space.

Strange that Tom Harvey chooses a Geordie to champion of a piece about South London. I worry he feels we South Londoners can’t be earnest the way straight-laced Northerners seem to be able to be. Well, I’ll try to rectify that. Pool grapples with issues of identity and hope but its story is familiar and human. It teaches us that a triumph is a triumph however comparatively small. It teaches us always to stand up for what for you believe in because the moment you fail is the moment you give up trying. Pool exposes a magic in the everyday if you only want to see it.

For further information and tickets, click here.

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