The Woman as the enduring Spirit of the Age
“For Robert Holman who lit the way.”
Alistair McDowall’s dedication of The Glow.
As we all experience the loss of so many during the pandemic it is natural to think about the existence of the afterlife. People will go to spiritualists to be put in touch with their departed and others will find religion as the hope of an afterlife and an explanation for death and suffering.
In Alistair McDowall’s new play, The Glow a mysterious woman (Ria Zmitrowicz) finds herself in different scenarios from Life with the Cavemen to the present day. We first meet her incarcerated in an asylum like Bedlam where Mrs Lyall (Rakie Ayola) a well known spiritualist will rescue her and train her as an assistant in her sessions as a medium.
Mrs Lyall has herself been threatened with psychiatric care by her husband because of her pre-occupation with matters spiritual and gains the trust of the woman whom she names Sadie. Mrs Lyall’s son Mason (Fisayo Akinade) resents the newcomer and many of his reactions inspire our laughter.
The shorter first act features Mrs Lyall’s scary séance or “demonic ritual” as Mason calls it. We are in the dark and get the occasional glimpse of Mrs Lyall’s blue shoes and matching petticoat as she patrols the stage. There is a crash and screams and Mrs Lyall and the woman unleash sinister spirit noises. Sadie speaks in Latin. Mason is terrified.
Amazing projections take us back to 343 AD and a knight with long hair and a broad sword (Tadhg Murphy). It is no wonder that the Royal Court has told us to unsettle into our seats. McDowall’s knight is called Haster, not a million miles away from Lord Hastur a dark lord who features in poems, novels and computer games.
The Appendix in the text is essential reading for anyone wanting to know more of what Alistair McDowall’s sources were for The Glow. A 1928 book called The Woman in Time by Dorothy Waites describes finding pictures of women in paintings lit by a mysterious glow. She maintained that these were illustrations of women, a symbol, a comment on that age, “A kind of social thermometer”. Interest in it has become something of a cult combining mythology and witchcraft.
In 1348, Haster in chainmail and we switch with projections to 1979 where Evan (Fisayo Akinade) in a library is exploring the “glowing” female figures in history and mythology and explains them to the Woman now named Brooke. The mysterious woman is personified as Joan of Arc, the Lady of the Lake and Margaret of Anjou and others. Presumably we could add Florence Nightingale for her idiosyncratic glow!
Part of the magic is Marie Hensel’s dark imposing set and Jessica Hung Han Yun’s eerie lighting. Tai Rosner’s video designs are magnificent between scenes like enhanced, penetrating static interference with terrifying sound from Nick Powell.
The Glow is a work of imagination and needs an audience willing to engage with the ethereal.
Production Notes
The Glow
Written by Alistair McDowall
Directed by Vicky Featherstone
Cast
Starring:
Fisayo Akinade
Rakie Ayola
Tadhg Murphy
Ria Zmitrowicz
Creatives
Director: Vicky Featherstone
Designer: Marie Hensel
Movement Design: Malik Nashad Sharp
Lighting Designer: Jessica Hung Han Yun
Composers and Sound Designer: Nick Powell
Video: Tai Rosner
Fight Director: Bret Yount
Information
Running Time:Two hours with one interval
Booking to 5th March 2022
Theatre:
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
Royal Court Theatre
Sloane Square
London SW1W 4AS
Phone: 020 7565 5000
Website: royalcourttheatre.com
Tube: Sloane Square
Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge at the
Royal Court
on 27th January 2022