Pomona premiered in 2014 at a small theatre in London, England. The playwright, Alistair McDowall, is a rising star in the U.K. theatre scene, and the urban horror story wowed critics.

“He’s a young guy and kind of hitting his stride, and he digs this sci-fi world,” says director Christopher Stanton, whose theatre collective Arc is presenting a production of Pomona this month. “I’m drawn to genre pieces as well. It always seems like a great open book that theatre rarely gets into.”

Pomona is about a young girl in search of her missing sister, which leads her to an industrial wasteland at the centre of town. 

Think the Distillery District, circa 1980, says Stanton. 

“She uncovers terrible things happening,” he says. 

“Really, it is a treatise on our ability as a culture to turn the other way and ignore the evils that surround us every day.”

Clearly, with a play such as this with a creepy vibe and an immersive environment, location is key. And really, now that the city is all about converting former industrial spaces into swank condos and high-priced performance venues, choices are a bit slim.

Luckily, the group found Geary Lane.

“It’s also a repurposed industrial building, definitely not your typical theatre venue,” Stanton explains. “It feels, as you approach it, like it is part of an industrial world.”

Stanton also directed Arc’s last production, Moment, in 2014. A transplanted Albertan, he graduated from the University of Alberta theatre program and moved to Toronto in 2002.

When Stanton read the play, he knew he had to put together a Toronto production.

“It’s a funny, brilliant show that uses sci-fi and fantasy as the architecture for the piece,” says Stanton. “It’s like if David Lynch was the dungeon master for a game of D&D.”

Pomona runs Nov. 1 to 19 at Geary Lane (360 Geary Ave.)