British playwright Alistair McDowall.Manuel Harlan.
"In theatre, I can do whatever I want," Alistair McDowall told The Guardian in 2014. "No one is going to say, 'Don't put a time machine in your play.' " Well, they might. But no one did, and so the young British playwright came up with 2013's Brilliant Adventures, which did not involve Bill or Ted (or Keanu Reeves), but did incorporate a time-warp device into a gritty and gripping housing-project drama.
Fast forward to 2015, when McDowall's Pomona – a urban-horror morality play about a girl's missing sister and a secret wasteland within a city – wowed the critics. Variety's Matt Trueman praised its sharp critique of the way we turn horrible realities into stories (only to then turn a blind eye), while The Guardian saw it as a "dark, fractured and deeply unsettling theatrical weapon."
In Toronto, the young ARC company will stage Pomona in an industrial-type setting, creating an eerie, immersive environment for its North American premiere.
Pomona plays Nov. 3 to 19 (previews Nov. 1 and 2). $19 to $34. Geary Lane, 360 Geary Ave., brownpapertickets.com or arcstage.com.
Brad Wheeler