Stage Review - Silent Sky (Woodinville Rep)
Stage Review - Silent Sky
Presented By: Woodinville Rep - Woodinville, WA
Show Run: February 21 - March 16, 2025
Date Reviewed: Saturday, February 22, 2025 (Opening Weekend)
Run Time: 2 Hours, 30 minutes (including 20 minute intermission)
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman
In any conversation concerning the most popular modern playwrights, Lauren Gunderson has to be right there, she’s literally been America’s most produced playwright since 2016. I’ve touched on a few reasons for this in previous reviews, notably her themes of female independence and empowerment, and her infusion of science and mathematics in her work. In other words, her women are not just independent, they’re smart, and perhaps at that the most realistic and consistent portrayal of the female archetype on stage. She’s well known for her Christmas at Pemberley series, the follow-ups that she’s written to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and her Book of Will has made its rounds on both the professional and community stages in the area, showcasing that she doesn’t just write about strong, smart, independent women, but that she has a knack for delivering plays that are well constructed and funny to boot. That said, perhaps her best known work, and one that puts all of her most well known creative elements to use is Silent Sky, Gunderson’s 2015 play about astronomer Henrietta Leavitt’s struggle to practice as that smart, strong, independent woman, in a world that will let her be none of those things at the same time. The play, which is currently running on stage at the Restaurant at DeLille Cellars and is being produced by Woodinville Rep, follows Leavitt from her home in Lancaster, Massachusetts, to Harvard, where she‘s offered a job as a “computer”, analyzing plates that contain images from the telescope at the Harvard Observatory. The group of women that she is part of, known as Pickering’s Harem by the men, isn’t allowed to touch the telescope, and any discoveries they make are soon gobbled up by their male colleagues, the ones who ARE allowed to directly view the night sky. This is the story of Silent Sky, Henrietta Leavitt’s struggle to balance the pull from her family at home, her sister who doesn’t understand why Henrietta has to dream so big and father, who needs her but in his heart believes in her, and the tug of her dream of making a difference in the world of astronomy, and breaking through that thick glass ceiling that is preventing the other computers and her from being able to excel in their jobs. The Woodinville Rep production runs through March 16, is directed by Jay Stratton, and features Sonja Usher as Henrietta Leavitt in a role that feels like a breakout for her.
As Henrietta, Sonja is front and center for just about the entirety of the story. Silent Sky follows the astronomer from the moment she receives a letter from Harvard, offering a position at the observatory just about through her death. It ends up being a period of twenty years in her life (she started working at the observatory in 1902 and died in 1921 and was 34 when she was hired by Edward Pickering, director of the observatory), though Gunderson may have skewed the timeline a bit, enough to cover the major points in her life. What it also does is provides Sonja with the opportunity to flex her acting chops by portraying the daughter who longs for something bigger despite the pull from her sister and the responsibilities of home, the hopeful astronomer, the fighter who rebels against the notion that as a woman she can only be trusted to analyze the work that the men do, and not do the work herself, the mature woman who faces the choice between her career and her family and has to live with the consequences of that choice, and the older but still too young woman battling stomach cancer while still trying to pursue her work. It’s a lot, and Sonja’s is extremely good. Her expressiveness, enthusiasm, and energy bring so much to the role, and there’s a magnetism about her performance that’s alluring, drawing the attention of the audience into Henrietta’s life in a way that cements the casting of Sonja in this role as just about perfect. The only thing that would have made it better is if she could have looked worse when her Henrietta is suffering toward the end of the play, with her terminal illness. It’s clear that she’s sick, and Sonja does what she can to act the part, but that lightness of her performance that brings so much energy hitherto is hard to dispatch and without a physical manifestation of the illness, it’s difficult to see through that. One thing to point out as well is that Henrietta Leavitt was deaf, so as Sonja portrays the character, her use of a hearing aid is perfectly consistent, on when she’s in conversation, and off when she’s not.
This is Henrietta’s story, and there’s never any doubt from Sonja’s portrayal that she’s strong and independent, but she’s also vulnerable, and Sonja is clearly able to portray that side of the woman as well. The vulnerabilitiy is shown in Henrietta’s relationships with both her sister Margaret, played by Sydney Kaser, and Peter Shaw, played by Glen Hodges. I appreciate Margaret, putting family first, and not understanding why Henrietta can’t, or won’t do the same. The sisters provide two perspectives, Margaret’s more faith-based and Henrietta’s purely scientific, that present these opposite motivations that lead to some pretty hard decisions later on in the play. There’s a sisterly love there, for sure, despite their conflict, and Sydney plays Margaret with just as strong of a sense of self and of character as Sonja does Henrietta, though with perhaps a bit of longing, or even jealousy, bubbling just beneath the surface. Peter Shaw, meanwhile, is Henrietta’s direct supervisor at Harvard, and he takes quite a shine to the new computer. Glen’s performance here is a bit more layered than one might think, at first he seems a bit misogynistic, even if naively so, but he’s nervous around Henrietta, like a school boy with a crush, something that turns into a deeper love, that has its own ups and downs exacerbated by the choices they both have to make. Ultimately, Peter’s defense of Henrietta’s work can’t be understated, and Glen’s arc from nervous school boy to a more mature man defending the work of a woman in a world where that wasn’t exactly acceptable is thus complete.
Working with Henrietta in Pickering’s Harem is Annie Jump Cannon and Willamina Fleming. Willamina, played by Christina Williams, is the Scottish housekeeper of Pickering, whom he hired to start his office as a sort of dare, “My housekeeper could do better….”. Christina is funny and endearing, and her character is not one to stay away from challenging men like Peter Shaw. Her Willamina knows her place, knows her strengths, and has an opinion about pretty much everything, and Christina delivers all of this with an entertaining Scottish accent. Finally, Annie Jump Cannon, like Henrietta after her, an astronomer that has been credited with a good many discoveries despite not being allowed to touch Harvard’s telescope, is played by Ines Kreitlein. Annie is impatient, likes to work alone, in peace, and in quiet, but once she warms up to Henrietta, it’s clear that she’s got a friend for life. It’s a nice transitional role for Ines to play, and the way she portrays Annie, gruff at first, but then kinder as time moves on, is very good.
Silent Sky is a very well written piece, and here it’s performed by a more than capable cast. I also like what Jay and his team have done from a design perspective. Given that the space where Woodinville Rep performs at the Restaurant at DeLille Cellars isn’t a traditional theatre, they can be creative in how they lay out the show. In this case, there are a few set pieces scattered about the room, the table where the women work near the telescope, a piano representing Henrietta’s home in Lancaster, a desk that is her home outside of Harvard, and a parapet on which she, or any of the other characters can stand to look at the night sky. Molly West designed the set for the show and her work is very suitable for the space, not overly complicated or cluttered, while able to represent multiple locations, and with Leroy Timblin’s lighting design and Chris Edgers’ sound, it’s a nice overall design. The final piece of the creative puzzle is the costuming, designed here by Priscilla Fontanez. The costumes are big and full, and are period appropriate, though perhaps a little lighter in color than some of the photos I’ve seen of this group of astronomers. Of course, there’s artistic liberties which can be excused for the sake of the storytelling, I do like the costumes, and Annie Jump Cannon, it turns out, was also deaf, though her character in the play is not portrayed that way. I know that Woodinville Rep is still finding their footing in this space, but I like the freedom that it gives them, there’s no set configuration that they have to adhere to, and with the two shows that I’ve seen there, Silent Sky and The Thanksgiving Play previously, they’re well on their way.
Out of all the plays in Lauren Gunderson’s catalog, Silent Sky may be the most representative of what makes her work so good and so popular. With themes of female empowerment, strength, and independence, the story of Henrietta Leavitt’s scientific impact achieved in a world where women were often kept in the shadow of men, presents those themes in the context of math and science in a way that only Gunderson can. Sonja Usher leads a wonderful group of actors, under the direction of Jay Stratton, in an breakout performance that is filled with energy and light, an alluring turn that hits every emotional note and presents Henrietta Leavitt as a strong, independent, intelligent, and unforgettable woman, the kind that made Lauren Gunderson want to write about this sisterhood of astronomers.
Lauren Gunderson’s Silent Sky, presented by Woodinville Rep, runs on stage at The Restaurant at DeLille Cellars in Woodinville through March 16. For more information, including ticket availability and sales, visit https://www.woodinvillerep.org/.
Photo credit: Sandro Menzel
