Pomona at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester

4/5

POMONA is the strange derelict island which straddles Salford and Manchester. Once heaving with dockers, labourers and big ships, today it’s a wasteland ensnared by a couple of canals, twisting motorways and busy tramlines.

It lies forgotten, a mysterious black hole in the city.

In playwright Alistair McDowall’s skilful hands, the island is transformed into a surreal world of monsters, murderers and misfits, a bleak dystopia populated by survivors of some apocalyptic horror. In it, Ollie (Nadia Clifford) comes looking for her twin sister who has disappeared in Manchester. She encounters the sinister and alarmingly dishevelled Zeppo (Guy Rhys) who owns most of the city.

After recounting a hilarious synopsis of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, he points her towards the multitude of disused tunnels running beneath Pomona and the gory horrors contained there.

Georgia Lowe’s evocative stripped-back set, coupled with Giles Thomas’s heart-stopping soundscape escalates the tension right up to the final blackout.

Director Ned Bennett and the wonderful young cast keep the audience on the edge of their seats as the horrors unfold.

Sam Swann is excellent as the young security guard Charlie, oblivious to the gruesome world beneath his feet. He just wants to lose himself in his fantasy games. His partner Moe, a brilliantly deadpan Sean Rigby, has his own issues.

Both men are press-ganged by their pyscho boss into making a problem disappear, a chore which will destroy their world.

Like the ring road circling the island, McDowall’s characters are stuck in a loop of destruction abandoned by mainstream life. By the end it is unclear who’s looking for who and who is chasing whom. But, be assured, it works.

McDowall’s play is very bleak, with little scope for redemption. Yet he has a great ear for morbid comedy and there are many brilliantly funny moments set against a desperate and frightening landscape.

Although disturbing and at times uncomfortable to watch, Pomona is never gratuitous or sensational. It’s a surprisingly thoughtful work — this is not a play about Pomona or even the wastelands in the cities we inhabit, it is a drama about fear, alienation and the imagination. In a fragile and scary world, it’s very much theatre for our times.

Co-produced with London’s Orange Tree and National theatres, the Royal Exchange show won huge plaudits in the capital before returning to the city that inspired its author — and rightly so.

Runs until November 21, box office: royalexchange.co.uk