*****
NOT wanting to know unpleasant truths isn’t just a sign of the times, it’s a reality which runs through our lives, through our years. In an age of instant communication where the world’s knowledge, literally, is at our fingertips, ignorance is a choice we make daily. In the large things and the small.
There’s little specifically Manchester here, apart from the style of humour
Alistair McDowall’s searing new play, Pomona, highlights this reality, and the range of denial on offer.
A relatively small denial is the one made by Zeppo (Guy Rhys), a chicken nugget lover who consumes more than 100 a day and deliberately avoids acquaintance with the manufacturing process. More serious is the choice by security guards Moe (Sean Rigby) and Charlie (Sam Swann) to ignore the nagging question of what it is they’re actually guarding.
All escape into a degree of unreality, Zeppo almost convincing himself that he owns most of Manchester, and Charlie into his club of roleplay games enthusiasts.
Guy Rhys’s Zeppo is very funny, but also scary; one of those people who insists on telling you the plot of a film you already know (Raiders of the Lost Ark in this case), in doing so revealing more about his character than intended. It’s a classic modern Manchester role, delivered in an almost monologue of guile, innocence, swagger and not-so-thinly veiled threat - entertaining with engaging shafts of insight and logic. As Zeppo ‘owns’ most of the city, he’s introducing it in a supposedly helpful way to visitor Ollie (Nadia Clifford) who has arrived to search for her disappeared twin sister.
The ensuing tales interweave reality and fantasy with the story looping back on itself, Mobius-style. As with Alistair McDowall’s previous work at the Exchange, Brilliant Adventures, the reality is hard; lonely people, sad people, trying to make contact but manipulated by a harder edge exercising power over the dispossessed. The humour is bright, but often alarming, shot through with uncomfortable images, stories and language.
Pomona (credit Richard Davenport)Performances throughout are excellent. Sean Rigby provides Moe with a combination of hard solidity and with hints of hidden tenderness. Sam Swann’s Charlie has perfect timing, engaging audience empathy after the character has initially made you want to up and leave. Rochenda Sandall’s Gale despatches any notion of women as the weaker sex, Nadia Clifford’s Ollie is a bright light of potential resistance, while Rebecca Humphries as Fay, the resilient sex-worker with a strong sense of right and wrong, carries the strongest narrative arc. Sarah Middleton as the apparently ingénue Keaton is totally watchable.
Posters for Pomona feature an image of Cthulhu, a monstrous entity, invented by H P Lovecraft, which lies 'dead but dreaming', a clue to the way the story weaves in and out of reality, questioning everyone’s ability to distinguish between fact and fantasy. Audiences familiar with McDowell’s work might wish for the return of Brilliant Adventures’ cardboard time machine; the only escape in Pomona being a drain, central stage, through which blood can leave.
Even before entering the lunar-module theatre space the audience arrives to darkness and a disturbing soundscape. It's clear Pomona is not going to be a bundle of laughs. It's not for everyone, true, but this is a fascinating theatrical experience, one which sticks with you long after you leave the theatre.
Reviews elsewhere refer to a dystopian story, returning home to Manchester. Though all roads in the play lead to the real abandoned concrete island of Pomona - lying just out of Manchester city centre on the Metrolink line to Salford Quays - there’s little specifically Manchester here, apart from the style of humour.
Pomona is in performance at The Royal Exchange until 21st November. Guided walks around Pomona can be booked via the Royal Exchange’s website.
