The Glow
The Royal Court

BASED on a premise originating in a little known book by Jessica Waites entitled The Woman in Time, the play attempts to personify an immortal female spirit erratically observed on our shores throughout history.

Usually bathed in a glowing light, her questionable presence in paintings, poems and written accounts was originally explained as a symbol or gauge of the time.

Alistair McDowall has turned this allegorical figure into a flesh and blood, supernatural agent unable to control her full powers. If this sounds a bit like another figure from one of the superhero franchises, you are not far off the mark.

The first act set in 1863 sees the woman rescued from an asylum to become a spiritualist medium’s assistant, rather like Coward’s Madame Arcati adopting Stephen King’s Carrie. As the visual effects and strange sounds begin to take over the mausoleum-like set, we realise not everything is as it seems.

After the interval, the woman begins random leaps through time for no particular reason. Tal Rosner’s stage-enveloping projections are the highlight of these chaotic sequences and take over when the dialogue becomes too woolly and limp.

Director Vicky Featherstone has problems creating a range of distinctive, historical characters from the small cast and making them vanish and reappear with a regularity that might trouble any special effects department.

Ria Zmitrowicz’s ubiquitous woman sacrifices emotional depth or development for a growing awareness of her powers, much akin to the superhero trope, but the lack of any mission or agenda apart from being eternally present precludes any recognisable structure.

The designers have worked hard to give this play life, but even on film it would probably lack coherency and be a fantastical idea pushed way too far.

Runs until March 5, box office: royalcourttheatre.com