Review: Main Street Theater's SILENT SKY Awes and Inspires

SILENT SKY, the entrancing play by Lauren Gunderson, based on the real-life story of pioneering female astronomer Henrietta Leavitt, shows through December 6 on the Main Street Theater stage.

The production is wonderful. It is sweet but not saccharine. It provides the warmth and healthy glow of the sun but not so much it makes you George Hamilton orange. Is a wonderful production.

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When I heard the learn'd astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide,
and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with
much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

Walt Whitman, When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer

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The play begins with Henrietta, a pastor's daughter, looking up in perfect silence at the stars. She is ecstatic about a new development in her life-Harvard wants her. But there's a complication, well, complications. Her sister wants her to stay and she lives in 1800s America, overt displays of sexism are alive and well. Still, she leaves her family and the comfort of home to take root in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where the Harvard University's Observatory lies. And the rest is history, which is what the play comes to chronicle.

Clearly, Director Rebecca Greene Udden intended SILENT SKY to be a story of hope and triumph for its female characters. Under her direction, Set Designer Liz Freese, Costume Designer Margaret Crowley, and Properties Designer Rodney Walsworth place a sepia filter onto the lens of production, blending various shades of brown that, along with the artful lighting design by Eric L. Marsh, add a touch of nostalgia, oakiness, and warmth to events that could very easily turn the play into a bleak affair.

Gunderson's funny, sharp writing don't hurt. She composes a nuanced, touching love story without resorting to sickeningly saccharine writing. She lightly dusts confectioners sugar on the relationship between Henrietta and Peter with measure and mixes in cloves of spices.

As for the staging, Main Street's intimate stage push production and audience closer together. This physical closeness translates to emotional closeness. When you are looking directly into the actor's eyes, faces close enough to kiss and embrace, you can't help but be seduced. Though, due to the nature of the theatre, the actors are at times obscured from view, with their backs to the audience. Judging by the effusive audience response, Udden has used the limitations of the stage to great effect. Even in our most intimate relationships, we cannot always truly see our partners in life. Perhaps that is a stretch for meaning, but it has a ring of truth.

The characters are engrossing and the cast give top-notch performances. Shannon Emerick provides the awe, in more ways than one, as the spunky and indomitable Henrietta Leavitt. Elizabeth Marshall Black (Annie Cannon) excels as Emerick's rigid, uptight mentor. Jennifer Dean is perfectly cast in the role of Margaret Leavitt, Henrietta's sympathetic sister. Claire Hart-Palumbo (Williamina Fleming) is funny and sassy, but not inorganically so, which is a feat considering that her role is built for character acting. And thanks to Main Street's theatre-in-the-round, cast and audience are eye to eye. One expression speaks more than a thousand words. In fact, one such heartbreaking expression from James Monaghan (Peter Shaw) jolted me backward, pushing me deeper into my seat.

In this way, and several others, Udden takes full advantage of telescoping as a technique as well as a metaphor. This is a play concerned with perspective. The women astronomers zoom into the minutia, blocking out the oppressive broader world outside their small basement office. Yet just as often, they look to the stars. Similarly, through this full view of the universe-represented by a windowpane installed by Freese-they are able to mitigate the struggles and tragedy around them. Of course, like light through a windowpane, the outer world often peeks through and leaks into their inner sanctum.

Proof positive that this is not the sort of play that can be wrapped up in a neat little bow. Playwright Lauren Gunderson avoids the easy answers-and dichotomies. Henrietta's work is not at odds with her sister's. In SILENT SKY, women's work is always valuable, whether the woman tracks the stars and makes scientific discoveries or runs a household and plays piano in church on Sundays. Likewise, religion is not considered at odds with science.

SILENT SKY compels you to have a passion, a yearning for learning. The title character is so effervescent in the face of obstacles and eventually tragedy. There is wit and sharpness combined with optimism. It is a marvelous play that sparks the intellect and warms the heart.

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SILENT SKY. Through Dec. 6. Fri** and Sat at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Main Street Theater Rice Village, 2540 Times Blvd. mainstreettheater.com

**The performance tonight, Friday, December 4 is sold out. How telling. However, you still have a chance to attend on Saturday, December 5 and Sunday, December 6.

Photos courtesy of Main Street Theater

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