Photo Credit: Ross E. Zentner
Rosalind Franklin is a woman ahead of her time and place in 1950s England. A scientist slavishly devoted to her work, she is consumed with discovering the “secret of life”—the DNA double-helix. And she is subsumed within a world dominated by men, more interested in making a name for themselves, using her work and discovery.
Renaissance Theaterworks, once again, provides an intensely captivating and fascinating drama filled with top-notch performances in Anna Ziegler’s Photograph 51. Directed with acute precision and devotion to detail by RTW’s Suzan Fete, Photograph 51 educates as well as entertains. RTW’s stellar production demonstrates that the creativity of art and the laws of science can create a compelling onstage synergy.
There is no need to be a science “geek” to understand the goings-on. Ziegler’s exceptionally written script explains the evolution of the discovery with the actual numbered “photograph 51” being the image that clearly defined the DNA double -helix. Her innate understanding of the people in the white lab coats enriches the three-dimensional characters she’s created, showcasing their lives outside the lab as well as within it.
While the male-dominated cast turn in solid performances, Cassandra Bissell commands the stage, powerfully holding her ground as needed and paving the way for the discovery to come. Bissell’s choices are riveting to watch; the subtle shading of knowing when to push forward and pull back with a male colleague; her inner yearnings for companionship awakening late in her career when a protege becomes romantically interested. It is an enthralling, tour de force performance. As her lab supervisor turned work “partner,” Dr. Maurice Wilkins, Neil Brookshire deftly navigates a challenging role as the “stiff” Englishman who is cowed—and ultimately seduced—by her intensity and knowingness. Joshua Krause skillfully fleshes out the protégé role of Ray Gosling, steadily but surely adding understated emotional layers within their growing personal relationship.
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“We made the invisible, visible,” says Dr. Rosalind Franklin at play’s start. Thanks to Photograph 51, we can now clearly see the woman, not behind, but ahead of all the men surrounding her.
Through Feb. 10 at Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway. For more information call 414-291-7800 or visit r-t-w.com.
