Why the North Pool Takes Place in 2007

Play scripts are generally very careful about setting the time and place of the story on the first page of the script, and The North Pool is no exception. For The North Pool we're told that the time is 2007 just before Spring Break and the place is a public high school in America. We wondered why the place was so generic while the time was so specific give that the play was first produced in 2011 in Palo Alto, and then we realized - Spring 2007 is just before the birth of the iPhone. Without the ubiquitous smartphone, threads in the play take longer to unravel, so it's a bit of clever trickery on the part of playwright Rajiv Joseph. Once you've seen The North Pool, take a moment to think about how the story would be different in today's world with Snapchat, Facebook, and smartphones.

Today actually marks the 10th birthday of the iPhone so it's an interesting reminder that while things have changed quite a lot in the past ten years, the thrust of the story has sadly not changed and remains as meaningful as ever.

An interview with the playwright

Playwright Rajiv Joseph and Giovanna Sardelli, who directed the world premiere of The North Pool discuss how the play came to be and the themes that Joseph was addressing when he wrote the script.