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(1987- ) UK playwright whose plays tend to incorporate elements of Fantastika into plots often set in North-East England, with an effect of gonzo spoofery. Brilliant Adventures (performed May 2013 Royal Exchange, Manchester; 2013 chap) uses the device of a Time Machine to generate farcical encounters now and in the Near Future; Captain Amazing (August 2013 Northern Stage at St Stephens, Edinburgh; 2014 chap), structured as a monologue, traces the self-creation of a genuine Superhero; Pomona (performed 12 November 2014 Orange Tree Theatre, London: 2014) climaxes in a conceptually distortive concrete Island at the heart of Manchester, a coercive Keep evocative of the work of J G Ballard; X (performed 30 March 2016 Royal Court Theatre, London; 2016 chap), set in a claustrophobic Space Station orbiting Pluto (see Outer Planets), confronts its astronaut protagonists with challenges of Perception beyond their ability to cope; in The Glow (24 January 2022 Royal Court Theatre, London; 2022), a fraudulent Victorian medium imprisons a Mysterious Stranger who has arrived in the 1800s via Time Travel. [JC]
born Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire: 8 June 1987
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Entry from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction edited by John Clute, David Langford, Peter Nicholls and Graham Sleight.
Accessed 22:22 pm on 19 April 2024.
<https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/mcdowall_alistair>