Ross Zentner
As a scientist struggling for recognition in a man's world, Clare Arena Haden illuminates "Silent Sky."
It’s not often that all the elements of a perfect show cluster together like stars in a constellation. There’s no certain formula, but try this one on for size: Begin with an unsung heroine that history has all but forgotten. Add in a delicate, delightful script comprised of crisp dialogue, humor and emotion to boot. Layer in the most delicate filaments of history and science. Craft it all on a stage twinkling with starlight. And top it off with a winsome cast. Now call this cosmic singularity Silent Sky, and whatever you do, don’t let it pass you by.
Silent Sky, which runs through Nov. 22 at the Overture Center, opens Forward Theater Company’s seventh season, which is comprised of three plays authored by women. This show, written by Lauren Gunderson, is based on the true story of Henrietta Swan Leavitt (Clare Arena Haden), an educated woman in pre-suffrage Massachusetts (Wisconsin, in this version) obsessed with astronomy. Leavitt is gifted and passionate. She is recruited by Harvard to work as a “computer,” one of three women studying and cataloging the stars.
As dedicated as she is, Leavitt is not permitted to touch the coveted telescope she aches to use to see, as she puts it, her “heaven,” the vast and unknown universe she longs to understand. Along the way to her great discovery — figuring out the relationship between variable star brightness and the lengths of their pulses, a finding that would inform all of modern astronomy — Leavitt falls in love with suitor and employer Peter (Michael Huftile); makes lifelong friends with coworkers Annie (Colleen Madden) and Willamina (Carrie Hitchcock); and shares a powerful bond with her sister Margaret (played by Liz Cassarino).
Silent Sky’s cast is a charming ensemble. Haden’s Henrietta has a smile that lights the room as bright as the stars she loves. Huftile, as her lovestruck suitor, is poignant in his tender admiration. Madden and Hitchcock offer a funny, warm, and vibrant picture of women at the turn of the century. Their implied love affair is a further daring touch. Cassarino, as the outsider living the simple life on a farm, is anything but simple. She, too, offers an important depiction of a woman who is not just mother and daughter, but an artist in her own right.
If Silent Sky is any indication of the plays to come, it’s going to be a very exciting season indeed. I look forward to learning more about the other women playwrights and their unique perspectives on the universe.
On my way back to my car, an older couple rode up in the garage elevator with me. They’d also just seen the show. The man clasped his program and said to his wife, “Let’s go look at the stars!” Silent Sky inspires that kind of passion and wonder. Chances are, no one in the audience will ever look at those points of light in quite the same way again.
