''The Pool'' (later subtitled ''City of Culture?'') is a play written by and starring James Brough and Helen Elizabeth. The plot follows David (Brough), a Londoner who finds himself stranded in Liverpool, where he meets Tina (Elizabeth). David persuades Tina to take the day off work and the two spend a day in the city together. The play is a mixture of verse and prose. Brough and Elizabeth conceived it while appearing at the 2004

Edinburgh Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

. They returned to perform it at

The Gilded Balloon Gilded Balloon is a producer and promoter of live entertainment events, based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and best known as one of the Big Four venue operators at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe each August. The company has its origins in a venue kno ...

in 2006. It has also been performed at the

Arts Theatre The Arts Theatre is a theatre in Great Newport Street, in Westminster, Central London. It opened on April 20, 1927. History It opened on 20 April 1927 as a members-only club for the performance of unlicensed plays, thus avoiding theatre cen ...

in London and the Unity Theatre in Liverpool. A film adaptation directed by

David Morrissey David Mark Joseph Morrissey (born 21 June 1964) is an English actor and filmmaker. He had numerous small roles in films and television series throughout the 1990s before achieving wider recognition for playing Gordon Brown in '' The Deal'' (2003 ...

premiered at the 2009

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival held in London, England, in collaboration with the British Film Institute. Founded in 1957, the festival runs for two weeks every October. In 2016, the British Film Institute, BFI estim ...

and was broadcast on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

on 7 March 2010.

Performance history

The play premiered at the

in 2006, where Brough and Elizabeth won the Fringe First award for new writing. It transferred to the

in London's West End for a limited run at the end of 2006, before a three-day run from 24 to 27 January 2007 at Liverpool's Unity Theatre. It returned to the Arts Theatre for a three-week run from 3 to 21 April 2007, now subtitled ''City of Culture?''

Film adaptation

Brough and Elizabeth, with

, adapted the play into a feature film called ''Don't Worry About Me'' after Morrissey saw it at the Arts. Brough and Elizabeth reprise their roles as David and Tina. It was filmed on location in Liverpool in September and October 2007 on a budget of £100,000. Due to Morrissey's acting commitments, editing and other post-production work delayed the film's release. It premiered at the 53rd

. After the screening, a distribution deal was signed with the BBC for the film to be shown on television. The film was broadcast on

on 7 March 2010, and was released on DVD the next day.Morrissey, David. Television interview with Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley. ''The One Show''. BBC One. 25 February 2010. Although many scenes were filmed around the city, some filming was done on the other side of the river, at Yummy's Cafe, in Wallasey Village, and on New Brighton beach.

References

External links

Reviews *Malcolm Rock,
''The Pool - City of Culture?''
, Whatsonstage.com. *Dominic Cavendish,

, ''The Daily Telegraph''. *Fiona Mountford,
''The Pool - City of Culture?''
, ''Evening Standard''. Film * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pool 2006 plays