Stage-to-screen review: The Old Man and the Pool

We're coming up to mid-September, traditionally the time when London theatre suddenly goes from a wasteland to a frantic stampede, so barring any unexpected health issues (whether global or personal) this should be the last of the current crop of screen and radio adaptations I use to pad out the dry season. Speaking of health issues, that's the focus of Mike Birbiglia's mix of stand-up and autobiographical storytelling, The Old Man and the Pool, which ran in London at Wyndham's Theatre a year ago. I'd been vaguely tempted but I do occasionally remember not to spend money I don't have on shows I'm not sure about I didn't book, and only a few months later Seth Barrish's production got added to Netflix anyway. Here the starting point is a medical check-up that reveals his regular breathing strength is the same as that of someone in the middle of a heart attack, and is advised to take up regular swimming.

This sets off a dive not just into the pool but also into his memories of YMCA swimming pools when he was a child; on a wider theme, it sends him into thoughts about mortality and the various illnesses he's had over his life so far.

These include cancer in his teens, discovering he's prone to a severe and potentially dangerous form of sleepwalking in his twenties, and this heart scare and diabetes in his forties. While this doesn't match my own ailments as someone a couple of years older than the performer it's a very familiar story of the way by middle age you've got a medical history that's gradually built up over your life, making for an ever-increasing list of fears and concerns to get added to the worries at the back of your mind.

Fortunately there's a lot of funny lines among all this soul-searching and contemplating mortality, making for an entertaining hour and a quarter, as well as one with its share of moving moments, and surprise gut-punches. Birbiglia's stage presence is laid-back to the point of sleepiness, which also allows him to gently tease the audience near the end about the way the show mixes comedy with darkness. September seems to have lurched into a cold and dark winter day today, and I couldn't have picked a much better way to counteract that than with a show full of suitably autumnal melancholy, but steeped in comedy and ultimately positivity.

The Old Man and the Pool by Mike Birbiglia is now streaming on Netflix.

Running time: 1 hour 15 minutes.

Photo credit: Emilio Madrid.