Alistair McDowall
all of it
Royal Court Theatre Downstairs 2020 & 2023, Avignon Festival 2023
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“The English have staged a major coup: the arrival of Alistair McDowall at the Avignon Festival will not go unrecognised. Darling child of the Royal Court Theatre in London, this 36-year-old author is to be closely followed. Firstly because he uses language with virtuosity. He folds it, unfolds it, dirties it, mishandles it, and in doing so, he celebrates it. Then, because he extracts it from the reductive register of communication. Finally, because the sound of words says more, under his pen, than the flawless execution of impeccable grammar. It is as a poet that he uses writing to honour its promises: to excite the imagination, to stimulate play, to provoke staging and to elevate the theatre.”
Royal Court Theatre Downstairs 2022
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“the play’s premise revolves around the protagonist’s extraordinary abilities, and the way they separate her from a world that she would like to find a place in. And ultimately she does seem to find a sort of peace, in the remarkable, tragic, accepting, awesome speech that closes the play… Alistair McDowall has undoubtedly come up with the goods again in this strange and beautiful play, a mix of sci-fi, folk myth and elegy for humanity."
National Theatre, Connections, London, 2017
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(Play for Young People, produced by 48 groups across UK and at the National Theatre)
Royal Court Theatre Downstairs, 2016
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“It’s a conundrum explaining why X is so good without giving away its Y- the closing stages involve a bold series of twists and impart the evening’s raison d'être. But what’s equally impressive is that even though the dénoument deepens our understanding of what we’ve witnessed, it doesn’t cancel out the surface-detail fascination of its fictional starting-point”
POMONA
Commissioned and first produced by Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama; first produced professionally at Orange Tree Theatre autumn 2014
Transferred to the Royal National Theatre and Manchester Royal Exchange autumn 2015
Winner of Four Off-West End Awards including Best Production and Best New Play
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“Alistair McDowall’s new play will fuck with your head. Pomona fuses fantasy and reality in a disturbing dystopian vision of society. The play is a real demonstration of McDowall’s skill at crafting a plot that sticks in the brain, heart and stomach.”
TALK SHOW
Royal Court Theatre (Downstairs), summer 2013
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“a bitterly funny piece about a supremely dysfunctional family… I certainly hope this isn’t the last we hear of Alistair McDowall’s fine, flinty play”
CAPTAIN AMAZING
Live Theatre Newcastle and Edinburgh Fringe 2013, UK Tour 2014
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“This is an intelligent, involving examination of the transformative potential of fatherhood – of its ability to take a man who can barely look at himself in the mirror, and make him feel all-powerful, worthy of love. For my money, it may be the best one-man show you’ll see at the Fringe this year”
The Daily Telegraph
BRILLIANT ADVENTURES
Winner of the Bruntwood Judge’s Award 2011 and subsequently produced at the Royal Exchange Manchester and Live Theatre Newcastle. Shortlisted for the Writers’ Guild Best Play Award 2013. Winner of the Manchester Theatre Awards Best Studio Production 2014.
USA Premiere Steep Theatre Chicago 2015
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