Review: “Pool Play 2.0” ended, but what a glorious swim it was!

The audience is sitting on the edge of the swimming pool, twirling their feet around, while the cast of seven tells stories, cultural anecdotes, and parables about various bodies of water. Solos by the choreographer of the show, Jonathan Matthews, are interspersed with monologues and scenes that eventually lead to a series of naïve and joyous group dance numbers set to Handel’s Water Music and Bobby Darin’s Splish Splash.

photo by Maria Baranova-Suzuki

Conceived and directed by Erin B. Mee, Pool Play 2.0 is another site-specific, immersive performance by This Is Not A Theatre Company, founded in 2013. The play, written by the company co-founder, Jessie Bear, launches fearlessly to explore the pool both as a cultural mythologem and a physical space.        

Being at the public pool might cause a lot of anxiety. “My legs are too skinny!” “I should have bought a new swimsuit!” – actors yell standing by the corners of the pool in the beginning of the play. They have to declaim at the top of their lungs to fight the acoustics of the Waterside Plaza. I applaud the strength and high energy of the actors, who were able to deliver lines to all four sides of the pool even while swimming or wrestling with a rubber boat.   

It helps that the writing of Jessie Bear (with additional text by Charles Mee and Leanne Sharpton) breaks into short, frisky lines. Over the course of the piece we are taken to various swimming pools around the country and time travel simultaneously. From the segregated pool in Davers, Virginia, opened in 1925, to the dystopian future, where due to an ecological catastrophe, people only get to enjoy the pool in the form of a hologram.         

Genres of the fragments vary widely. There are sketches of lives of rich pool owners and pour public pool workers; there is a lecture given by a fish on her values and lifestyle and a parable starring penguins. Memories of the imaginary childhood adventures in a bathtub are paired with training sessions of professional swimmers. In addition to the dance routines mentioned earlier, there is a Nighttimeswimming song, performed under the racing lights of cars on the FDR reflecting in the glass ceiling of the pool.

And I didn’t even list everything the Pool Play 2.0 has to surprise you, to make you laugh, to give you a wet embrace of unconditional love. The abundance and scatter of the fragments might be difficult to enjoy if you are a linear narrative junkie. I would recommend giving in and, the same way as with the water, let the performance hold you.

Some of the stories might resonate more than others, and this is the beauty of the format. Perhaps the goofy dancing by Jonathan Matthews in a retro, striped swimming suit and assortment flowery caps will land home with you. The joy, the sense of wonder resulting in the discovery of new sensations, and bodily qualities of being in the water are reflected on the dancer’s face throughout and are the essence of the show.

Pool Play 2.0 by This Is Not A Theatre Company ran on March 10^th-April 8^th. Let’s hope we will swim together again very soon. Meanwhile, keep an eye out for them, as I am sure more surprises are to come!