The Mercer family's fortune started in eighteenth-century England, increased via South African gems in the nineteenth, and is managed on an ethical basis today. But when a modern Mercer begins digging beneath the surface, the family's past suddenly appears less clear-cut than the gems they once traded. Set in the West Midlands of England in 1799 and 1999 and in Kimberley, South Africa in 1899, _Luminosity_ tells three tales of interlinked lives where greed, lies and generosity have surprising results. _Luminosity _premiered at The Pit, Barbican Centre, London, by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2001.