Pomona Research (2)

Pomona Research

Pomona



As Pomona is an actual island in Manchester, I decided to try and find out what it looks like and why it is actually there.



Pomona was once a dock in the river between Manchester and Salford, but has fallen out of use and become an abandoned wasteland. The island is almost completely isolated, with only one foot bridge to get there, but it only takes a few minutes to get there from Manchester city centre.



During the industrial revolution the island was briefly called Cornbrook Strawberry Gardens, housing gardens and the Royal Pomona Palace. It was then renamed Pomona after the Roman goddess. The island was surrounded by factories at this point and in 1887 the chemicals in one factory exploded and it damaged the palace. Because people wanted more land they decided to close the gardens instead of rebuilding. After that it was used as a dock for the Manchester ship canal, but then was abandoned and eventually forgotten by most people.



The island is a kilometre long and despite still being considered ‘contaminated’ from the factory explosion hundreds of years ago is home to wildlife such as grass, scrubby bushes, bees and flowers in the summer.

Names

Most writers use names with specific meanings, histories or connotations for emphasis in their writing. There are several interesting/unusual names in Pomona:



Pomona – The name of the real-life island. Pomona was the Roman god of harvests and fruitfulness, often represented by a basket of fruit. At first I thought this contradictory to the barren and empty island. However, the line ‘prepare the fruits of your body for sacrifice’ likens the organs/babies to fruit, which makes sense, as Pomona is the place where these ‘fruits’ are ‘harvested’.

Ollie – Ollie is usually used as a shortened form of ‘Oliver’, which means ‘olive tree’ or ‘army’. The name became popular because of Charles Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist, in which the main character Oliver is a orphan who ends up as a pickpocket – this relates a bit to Ollie as she also works under the law (‘I don’t think I can go to the police’). However, I think another reason Alistair McDowall has used the name Ollie for this character is because it’s usually considered a masculine name and Ollie’s character is rough and not very feminine.

Fay – Irish. Means ‘fairy’ or ‘raven’. Ravens mean intelligence and curiosity. People called Fay are supposedly trustworthy and loyal, which I think is interesting because both Moe and Ollie end up trusting and confiding in Fay.

Charlie – Means ‘free man’. At first I thought that was actually quite sad in the context of the play because Charlie’s character isn’t really free – he’s controlled by Gale and by extension, Keaton. However, then I realised that as the writer of the RPG, Charlie could be the only one in the play actually using his own free will.

Moe – Means ‘delivered’ or ‘helmet’ and is associated with being dark. I think this makes sense for the character because a helmet is a defensive, protective layer which is something Moe has developed for himself to shut out other people.

Gale – Gale means ‘stormy/windy’ which I think makes sense as the character Gale has a very stormy temperament and is also a powerful force like the weather.

Zeppo – The name Zeppo means practical judgement, which Zeppo has over the whole world (‘you choose what you educate yourself about’) and people with the name Zeppo are considered to be business-minded which is exactly what Zeppo is.

Keaton – Keaton means ‘place of hawks’ which works really well as a hawk is a powerful bird of prey that preys on others and is very calculating, just like Keaton.



RPG Games

·         RPG games are any kind of role-playing game where the players take on the identity of a fictional character in the world of the game.

·         There are two main different types of RPG – video RPG played on a gaming device such as an Xbox or PlayStation. These mostly have set storylines and the players go through the story as the main character, their ‘avatar.’ Popular games include Skyrim and Call of Duty.

·         The other type of RPG is less popular/well known and this is the board game RPG – the leading game of this category is Dungeons and Dragons, in which a game master writes a storyline and players make decisions – the outcomes of which are decided by a many-sided knife.

·         There are several standard ‘roles’ in RPGs, the most powerful being the game master, the person who directs the story and creates the storylines for the other characters rather than playing themselves.

·          They are called the ‘dungeon master’ in Dungeons and Dragons, which I think is really interesting because Charlie takes on this role and he literally guards the ‘dungeon’ of Pomona.

• RPG games can be attractive to people who want to take on a new identity and forget their own lives for a while, which is why Charlie would enjoy them so much - wanting to forget his own life where he has no friends and the turmoil of his past friend killing people at school.

Some examples of Dungeons and Dragons dice that Charlie might use.