Pomona, National Theatre ****

As you walk into the temporary theatre, you are transported to a dystopian future. The lights flicker; the drone vibrates to your soul and the actors hang around each corner of the auditorium to create an unsettling atmosphere. Alistair McDowall has created not only a frightening piece but a psychologically disturbing and thrilling one. The humour is macabre, bathetic and gross (a security guards dream to cover Manchester in his ejaculate was a favourite joke of mine) whilst the character development is some of the best I've seen. You see the final scenes for each character at the beginning of the play and it is only as the information trickles down that you realise the shocking end of each character. This sort of theatre is vital in order to get a new, younger audience interested in intelligent theatre with an aesthetic from designer Georgina Lowe that captures the grime of horror films combined the slick and simple nature of an in-the-round space. The drain in the middle provides and effective death scene and an interesting metaphor for the unknown nature of Pomona. Ned Bennet directs a stunning production which bridges scenes with movement and darkness. The ensemble cast are all phenomenal from Guy Rhys' crazy owner of Manchester to Rebecca Humphries' as the emotionally unstable Fay. It addresses the seriously inappropriate relationship society has to porn and to sex workers in what feels like the most professional piece of theatre that I have seen in this fresh and exiting space.