The North Pool

PRAISE FOR THE PLAYS OF RAJIV JOSEPH

GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES

“Gruesome Playground Injuries finds a fresh way of expressing human vulnerability, and two individuals’ struggle to understand their need for each other. Joseph takes risks . . . that pay off emotionally.”

—EVERETT EVANS, HOUSTON CHRONICLE

“Make[s] us feel life’s brevity and fragility . . . there’s something paradoxically life-affirming about the sensitivity with which playwright and players perform this haunting ode to self-destruction.”

—CHRIS KLIMEK, WASHINGTON CITY PAPER

“A provocative dark comedy.”

—OLIVIA FLOREZ ALVAREZ, HOUSTON PRESS

“Layered with quirky humor and poignant intensity—a crash course in growing up, getting hurt, and the healing power of love.”

—GWENDOLYN PURDOM, WASHINGTONIAN

ANIMALS OUT OF PAPER

“Joseph’s observant, pitch-perfect script seems modest at first but is really quite ambitious, dealing ruthlessly . . . with the fragility of happiness, the tragedy of impulsiveness and the tenuousness of hope.”

—ANITA GATES, THE NEW YORK TIMES

“Terrific . . . Joseph’s carefully modulated play slowly reveals darker edges to these characters.”

—JASON CLARK, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

“[Joseph] begins with a quirky comedy about origami experts and deftly transforms it into a melancholy reminder that close friends make the worst messes. His journey from one extreme to the other . . . is surprising and specific, pulling honest insights out of unusual situations.”

—MARK BLANKENSHIP, VARIETY

“Rajiv Joseph is one of the most refreshing new playwrights I’ve ever encountered . . . Animals Out of Paper is one of the most satisfying new works I’ve seen all year. Joseph is a fascinating voice in the world of theatre. He’s crafted a substantial play, funny and sad, down-to-earth and unpretentious, with a great deal of meaning . . . Joseph’s play is refreshingly genuine, and he’s a playwright to look out for.”

—DAVID GORDON, NYTHEATRE.COM

BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO

“No ordinary play. I’m tempted to call it the most original drama written so far about the Iraq war, but why sell the work short? The imagination behind it is way too thrillingly genre-busting to be confined within such a limiting category . . . Bengal Tiger marks the breakthrough of a major new playwriting talent.”

—CHARLES MCNULTY, LOS ANGELES TIMES

“The writing is beautiful . . . the pacing is taut and thrilling.”

—LAURENCE VITTES, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

“Quite magnificent.”

—STEVEN LEIGH MORRIS, LA WEEKLY

“Though set amid the throes of the U.S. incursion, it’s less an Iraq War play than a heavily metaphorical musing on life’s purpose in a godless universe.”

—BOB VERINI, VARIETY

THE NORTH POOL

The North Pool

Copyright © 2013 by Rajiv Joseph

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.