"What is the shape of history?" This is a question that director Betsy Tucker poses in the University Drama Department's production of "Luminosity." Penned by British playwright Nick Stafford, the play explores the dialectic between black and white in British history.
Debra Mercer is an artist and the only daughter of the wealthy Mercer family in 1999 Britain. Her main occupation is making "crap out of scrap" as her brother Robert likes to tease, but lately Debra has been consumed not by art but by history. She wonders why she, a black woman, was adopted by a white family.
After this exposition the play takes both the contemporary characters and the audience through a time-jumping journey of the Mercer family history. In addition to the 1999 family, two other eras are exposed -- 1799, where we meet the first Mercer, and 1899, where we meet his grandson.
In each generation different issues of race are explored. In 1799 the first Mercer dabbles in the slave trade. In 1899 James Mercer, a diamond cutter, is part of the elite British society in a racially hierarchical South Africa. Finally, in 1999, Debra finds two relics from each of these eras that cause her to question the privileged life she has come to know.
"The play is a kind of a mystery where the contemporary characters are trying to discover things about their history," Tucker said. "The audience sees more of their history than the contemporary family ever sees. The contemporary family never sees what the audience sees. All they have is ... a photograph from 1899 and a speech from 1799."
By its very nature the play has the potential to be both confusing and dry. The language in the script is very blunt and straightforward. Inversely there are points in the stark realistic dialogue that are shot through with moments of laughable melodrama.
"This is one of those plays where the production is much more rich than the script would suggest," Tucker said. "There's a real difference between reading this play and seeing the play. It's obviously something that needs to be performed."
Fortunately, a stellar cast of graduate and undergraduate actors infuse otherwise flat characters with depth and definition through the use of accents and body movement. The accents range from cockney to London upper crust. While most are spoken with a great deal of talent there are moments when the accents lapse, breaking the spell of the era.
The acting skills employed, however, would be for naught if there were no costumes or set. The costumes are key in separating 1799 from 1899 and in setting the mood of the scenes and the effect of the costumes is amplified by the set.
"Color-wise I think we're both sort of working in the ranges in earth tones," set designer Thomas Bloom said. "My research all grew out of looking at images and researching physic gardens or medicinal herb gardens. So there's a lot of earth colors, ochres, siennas, in ... the garden and it's the same thing with the costumes."
Bloom has transformed Helms Theater into an herbal oasis. In the center of the room is a large round of earth encircled by a stone pathway. This is the core of the physic garden, the mainstay of the play, which is present in all three eras. The presence of the physic garden helps to reinforce the themes of roots and family -- an example of how well the crew used the minimal space available to them.
Sometimes, however, it is apparent how small of a set the cast and crew are working with. There are scenes where the eras overlap, a production concept designated in the script but exploited by Tucker to punctuate certain points. The collision of worlds is done artfully -- of that there is no doubt -- but there are moments when it's visually uncomfortable to see so many people in such a small space.
Despite these minor flaws the play is still both visually and contextually engaging. Tucker agrees.
"It isn't just drama," she said. "It deals with some pretty interesting timely subjects but it also has comedy in it."
Stafford carefully balances the mix of comedy and drama in a way that is both sophisticated and tasteful. This blend extends to the topic of racial interaction, which Tucker noted.
"I've really, in the last few weeks, began to appreciate the sophistication with which [the play] deals with contemporary racial attitudes," she said. "I think it covers most bases pretty well. It doesn't end the debate but it raises most issues that most people are going to raise and kind of deals with them in an emotional way, in a way that's sort of satisfying."
"Luminosity" will be showing in the Helms Theater March 23-25, 29-31 and April 1 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $8.
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