A somewhat unkempt man shuffles out to the middle of a stage, bare except for a stool and a backdrop of the bottom of a swimming pool. There is a button undone on his shirt and his hair needs a comb pulled through it. This is Mike Birbiglia and he’s not well, writes Michael Holland.
Birbiglia has the air of an actor turning up at the first day of rehearsals having not read the script or even sure what role he is playing.
Before long he begins his tale of how he came from hating swimming because of the amount of urine found in public swimming pools to going swimming five times a week, more times, perhaps, than Michael Phelps.
On the way he argues against wrestling to win; debates doctors’ diagnoses and remedy advice; is told he is having a heart attack in the surgery while doing a simple breathing test, discusses the cancerous tumour found by a camera inserted into his penis, and keeps us all laughing at his woes the whole time.
There are poignant sections when he is reading bedtime stories to his daughter and the theatre as one provides a collective ‘Aaaaahh’, and there are times when he appears to be getting a little too energetic as he breaks into a sort of run around the stage and the audience as one fear witnessing another Tommy Cooper moment and wish he would stop. But mostly he is sitting on the stool or lying down to provide imagery for his bedtime story-telling, or to show how he laid in his hospital bed, or to demonstrate failed wrestling holds, but mainly he is on the floor to have a rest from standing up.
As Mike Birbiglia languidly guides us through his life there are moments when he looks like Kevin Costner, but Costner on a bad day, and very fleetingly. The trick of the light is soon shattered when you realise Kevin Costner would never shuffle around like he was close to death – Even if he was close to death!
Birbiglia’s The Old Man & The Pool is a truly wonderful piece of story-telling that is over far too soon. Is it a story put together from a foundation of facts, or completely fabricated for comedic reasons only? You don’t know whether to believe all of it or none of it but you know you never want Mike Birbiglia’s story to end.
Wyndham’s Theatre, Charing Cross Rd, London WC2H 0DA until 7th October. Times: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 7.45pm; Wednesday and Saturday at 6.30pm and 9pm. Admission: £15 – £85.
Booking: www.MikeOnWestEnd.com – 0344 482 5151
