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Luminosity

The Pit, Barbican Centre, West End
From: Tuesday, 20th March 2001
To: Tuesday, 1 May 2001

Our Review: starstarstar

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Synopsis

The Mercer family's fortune is built on the gem business in South Africa. But delving deeper, the family history is not clear cut as the diamonds they trade. Luminosity explores race and identity, and the moral responsibility of representing the past.

Our Review: starstarstar

26 March 2001

The latest in the RSC's series of new works, Nick Stafford's play deals with what one of the characters calls "the small print of history". Debra Mercer, a young woman from a wealthy home researches the family tree. All genealogical innocence at first, but as the play unfolds and the guilty secrets mount, there are some even more unsavoury revelations.

The action takes place over in 1799, 1899 and the present day, and Gemma Bodinetz's direction shifts the play swiftly between the different eras and settings of a modern day physic garden, its previous incarnation as a rundown cottage and South Africa.

Luminosity is an ambitious play, dealing with, amongst other things, historical interpretation, moral guilt for past misdemeanours, and racism. On the whole, Stafford succeeds in knitting these disparate themes together, but there are some awkwardly written scenes: an elaborate metaphor comparing women with diamonds is stretched for far too long and [Jude A...

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