Silent Sky
‘Lucky for us the universe doesn’t much care for what you wear’ says an indignant Henrietta Leavitt on first meeting her supervisor who asserts superiority through being a man, only for him to discover she’s just as qualified, and more eloquent with it.
Playwright Lauren Gunderson has created a superb story which director Lesley Reed has brought to life so beautifully on the St. Jude’s stage.
The true story of Henrietta Leavitt is that she left a large Wisconsin family in the early 1900s to work at Harvard, though not quite at the level she anticipated, given only the men were allowed to even touch the telescope. Her early fascination with astronomy led her to graduate from Radcliffe, the leading women’s college at a time before they were permitted to attend an Ivy League establishment. In the years she worked at Harvard, her out-of-hours study on cepheids at Harvard (stars that periodically change their brightness) established a method to measure distances in space and was the foundational work for many a subsequent discovery – Hubble (who had a famous telescope named after him) could not have achieved his brilliance without Leavitt’s work.
Brittany Daw is Henrietta Leavitt, a brilliant mind whose only obstacles were the patriarchy that expected her to be married and have children, and when working, then only to take on the analysis of the more exciting research a man had done before. Daw excels in the role, her period-perfect politeness occasionally overpowered by her frustrations at not being able to do what she’s capable of. Daw is also strong when Henrietta makes new discoveries: not just astronomical, but from unexpected emotions. Those revelations of surprise and delight in Daw’s expressions are brilliantly conveyed.
Those good and bad emotions burst towards her sister Margaret, played by Tianna Cooper, and her immediate supervisor, Peter Shaw (Josh van’t Padje). Cooper plays Margaret with such patience, as someone who has accepted their role, yet is just as strong and formidable as her sister in different ways; Cooper has the presence to command the stage. Van’t Padje is terrific as the man who can’t quite decide his position and feelings towards his brilliant ‘computers’ (the job title of the women who analysed the photographic plates taken by the telescope). He shows simultaneously both indignation and respect towards the small team, his awkward interactions with Daw’s Henrietta are humorous and touching – and their chemistry is great together.
The other two ‘computers’ are Williamina Fleming and Annie Jump Cannon, and both Joanne St Clair and Deborah Walsh devour these fantastic characters, taking Henrietta under their wings, and playing mischievously with their supervisor’s discomfort. Yet they’re not just there as background: both St Clair and Walsh craft heartfelt and real personalities that fill the entire ensemble – all the women tell stories of having to fight against the roles imposed on them by men.
Director Reed has gently guided her small cast to tell these great stories so skilfully. They’re supported by another excellent Don Oakley set, whose designs in this space always create place and time effectively. It’s used to great effect when connecting between different locations, the characters reading letters another has written, delivered as a conversation, whether from the rural family home to the Harvard office, or to a Europe-bound ocean-liner. The production is complemented by suitably understated lighting designed by Stephen Dean, vivid projections of stars and galaxies (designed by Ray Trowbridge), and piano music specially composed for the play by Jenny Giering.
Gunderson is one of the most produced American playwrights in the last decade, and she often writes about lesser-known scientists, usually women, whose passion, hard work, and important discoveries were credited to their male counterparts. Silent Sky is a South Australian premiere and St. Jude’s Players are to be commended for staging such important stories to its audiences.
Review by Mark Wickett
Photographer: Les Zetlein.
Disclaimer: the reviewer will be working together with this director and company on a production in 2025
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