Review: PHOTOGRAPH 51 At Evelyn Rubenstein JCC Theatre At The J

Sometimes in Houston theater you find a hidden gem, a great discovery if you will. Such is the case with the production of PHOTOGRAPH 51 now showing through April 30th at the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center in Meyerland. It is a thoughtful play about scientist Rosalind Franklin whose work was central to understanding the molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite. She along with her assistant Raymond Gosling took a crucial photograph or X-ray diffraction image that revealed the helix structure that became the basis for modeling what DNA and RNA looked like. She never got much credit when she was alive, but after her death she was championed as a feminist icon and often referred to as the "dark lady of DNA". She was cheated out of sharing a Nobel Prize in Chemistry with her colleagues simply because she tragically passed away before she was nominated, and the committee blocked any posthumous recognition. The men took all the glory, and her efforts were left unsung.

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I didn't think the story of photographing DNA would make for a very enthralling evening of theater, but boy was I mistaken. Anna Ziegler's script moves quickly, slinging out rapid-fire scientific dialogue mixed with emotional and workplace drama in equal doses. It captures not only the scientific struggles, but also the complexities of being a woman of science in 1952. It's a one act that wastes no time showing the all too human side to the scientists on the verge of a huge breakthrough. Dramatically we see the struggles of Rosalind, who sometimes moves cautiously knowing that as a woman she is not allowed to be wrong. That ends up costing her a great deal.

The Evelyn Rubenstein JCC (the J) Theatre at the J wisely chose Jennifer Decker (the artistic director of the Mildred's Umbrella Theater company) to come in and helm this show. Decker knows exactly how to pull off this type of play, and has an innate sense of its message. She has assembled an excellent cast and utilized the black box space of the Joe Frank Theatre ingeniously. Danielle Hodgins' set has a small helix influence that wraps around the intimate audience nicely. It allows the action to take place on multiple levels in the mix of spectators. Tori Dominguez engineers a nimble lighting grid that shifts the moods on cue. The directing is assured, the tech is well executed, and the ensemble is one of note.

Heading up the cast is the only woman in the room, Olivia Swasey. She brings to life a brilliantly jaded Rosalind Franklin who is melted only by her achievements and affection for a colleague. Her performance is impeccable, and she carries the show with a sense of grace and intelligence. Ryan Kelly as Maurice Wilkins delivers an interesting and credible mix of respect and unspoken attraction to Rosalind. Alric Davis plays Ray Gosling with a sly sense of humor and frank outspoken voice that brings delight to the proceedings. Jason Duga makes for a sweet love interest for Rosalind in his portrayal of Don Casper. Calvin Hudson gets the intricacies of a torn Francis Crik down pat, a man whose personal life and work are getting jumbled. And in the flashiest role of the evening, Ian Lewis gives a sense of devilish exuberance to the notoriously rebellious and infamous scientist James Watson. He plays him as if he is taking on one of the great villains of Shakespeare, and it works wonderfully. Truly the cast is pitch perfect for this play, and rarely will you see this amount of concentrated talent inside a community center's black box theater. It's remarkable.

All of this makes PHOTOGRAPH 51 a thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening evening that is well worth seeking out. It's a tale not told often enough about a Jewish woman who helped to decode the building blocks of life itself. It is even more poignant when we look across the scientific field and see how women are still marginalized and not given the same voices that men often take. One moment of Olivia Swasey's performance that I admired the most was when she portrayed Rosalind's pure joy at seeing the answers unfolding before her. She didn't care about the credit, simply that she was in the room when it happened. And what PHOTOGRAPH 51 ingeniously does as a play is allow you to be there as well.

The show runs at the Evelyn Rubenstein JCC located at 5601 South Braeswood in the Meyerland neighborhood through April 30th. You can reserve tickets through the link provided or by calling (713) 729-3200. There are evening performances Thursday through Saturday as well as Sunday matinees. The show is performed in one act that lasts approximately an hour and twenty minutes.

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