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Show: The Glow
Society: London (professional shows)
Venue: The Royal Court. Sloane Square, London SW1W 8AS
Credits: by Alistair McDowall
Type: Sardines
Author: Caroline Jenner
Performance Date: 28/01/2022
The Glow
Caroline Jenner | 29 Jan 2022 23:51pm
All photos: Manuel Harlan
Founded in 1956, George Devine saw The Royal Court Theatre as a platform for, ‘vital, modern theatre of experiment,’ and as such Alistair McDowell’s mysterious new play The Glow, does not disappoint. A strange, fractured time sequence and the brutal reality of prejudice and bigotry through the ages is woven together by the unravelling life story of the central character named in the cast list as The Woman, but known at various points during the course of the play as Sadie or Brooke. The audience are taken on a journey through the ages, jumping both backwards and forwards from primeval mud to the end of time, and share her confusion and loneliness as she comes to terms with who she is and the powers she holds.
We begin in 1863 with the stylish Mrs Lyall, a Victorian medium, stealing a mud-spattered girl from a mental asylum. Hoping for a passive creature to help her in her quest to access the world of the spirits she has taken on far more than she can cope with. Although essential to understanding the much longer second half the opening sequences do drag, despite strong performances by Rakie Ayola and Fisayo Akinade as Mrs Lyall and her son, the enjoyment comes from the relationship between the two: the bitterness of a son who has to play second fiddle to his mother’s dreams of forging a stronger relationship with the dark world, “Parents traditionally don’t use their children in demonic rituals” he tells the mother, who seems to be devoid maternal instincts. It is not until The Woman begins to move through time and the arrival of The Knight, Haster, played by Tadhg Murphy, that the true sense of the play begins to take shape.
Merle Hensel’s set provides an everchanging shape as the walls close in and move round, reflecting the shifting time lapses and the changing situation of The Woman, who occasionally manages to find herself temporarily in a place of safety. Further enhanced by Jessica Hung Han Yun stunning lighting and Tal Rosner’s unnerving video projections the play makes full use of hazers and strobes to constantly create a jagged reality that changes every few minutes as we skip around the centuries.
There are so many magical moments within this play. The Nurse, Ellen, describing her feelings on the death of her son, the love that The Woman has for Haster, the knight, the passion shown by the Historian Evan, for the story of The Woman in Time. However, it is Ria Zmitrowicz‘s role as The Woman that ties the whole together. We are taken on a journey of discovery leading to the haunting realization that there is no one else like her. We see the loneliness that she is forced to endure as everyone she cares for dies and the bitter knowledge that this will continue forever.
The Glow condenses the history of the world into two hours and twenty minutes, including interval, but it is not the vastness of the world that we remember but Zmitrowicz’s evocative monologues, which hang in the air, drawing us alongside on her journey through time and space.