A ‘Silent sky’ that speaks volumes

As the story unfolds in ‘Silent Sky’ by Repertory Philippines, you are simply in awe of the majesty and the mystery of the universe and how it moves the spirit to know more and learn more, despite limitations like discrimination.

I have questions, I have fundamental problems with the state of human knowledge!” proclaims Henrietta Leavitt to her sister, Margaret, in front of their pastor father’s church. Like she was challenging religion itself, she continues: “Who are we? Why are we? Where are we?” The last question is emphatically posed in desperation as she looks up at the starry sky. It was a question she was determined to answer by leaving their family home in rural Wisconsin to take a job at the Harvard College Observatory in Boston. Margaret, who was engaged, had interests closer to home where she was devoted to the family and to her music. There was nothing she could say to convince her sister to stay.

And so begins Henrietta’s quest in Silent Sky, a play by Lauren Gunderson, America’s most produced playwright for 2017. Joy Virata, Repertory Philippines’ artistic director, was first impressed with Gunderson when she read her article on the importance of theater for children. Later, when she saw Silent Sky on an online catalogue, she read it and fell in love with it. “I knew Rep just had to stage it and although I don’t usually direct plays in the season, I felt I just had to direct it.”

Virata delivers an inspired staging of this engaging, thought-provoking play based on the life of the little-known but important female astronomer who, despite the prevailing attitudes against women, made the breakthrough discovery of the relation between luminosity and the period of Cepheid variable stars. Her work enabled astronomers — including Edwin Hubble — to calculate the distance between Earth and remote galaxies and stars, making it possible for us to know where we are in the galaxy and where our galaxy is in the universe.

The play begins around 1900 when Leavitt (played by Cathy Azanza) arrives at the Harvard Observatory where she meets Topper Fabregas’ Peter Shaw (a fictional character created by Gunderson), the obtuse and awkward assistant of noted astronomer Edward Pickering. Thrilled by the sight of the large telescope, which she attempts to handle to see her beloved stars up close, she is at once reprimanded by Shaw and informed that she cannot use the instrument, nor can other women, who are relegated to desk jobs as “computers” or data entry clerks. This group of women comprise what is referred to in the office as “Pickering’s harem,” a term that shocks Leavitt but seems to be de rigueur for the boys during this era. The female clerks can only view the plates with photographs of what the men had seen through the telescope.

Despite her protestations that she is, after all a graduate of Radcliffe which is “Harvard in skirts,” she just has to grudgingly conform and join the other “computers”: Annie Cannon (Sheila Francisco), the stuffy, no-nonsense suffragette and Williamina Fleming (Naths Everett), the irreverently charming former housekeeper of Pickering. Fleming welcomes Leavitt with an orientation of their male-driven workplace: “At present we’re cleaning up the universe for men and making fun of them behind their backs. It’s worked for centuries.”

And so begins the sisterhood of these three women who plod on, working together to catalogue and measure the brightness of stars for the male professors who make up the theories and bask in the glory of discovery. Shaw is actually the only male character in the play, a reverse of the usual formula where a female protagonist is surrounded by men. For the playwright, he is enough to represent the dominant male status quo. He is also Leavitt’s love interest, a source of distraction in her drive to know more about what is out there in the vast universe that she is so eager to explore.

This passion and sense of wonder is consistently portrayed by Azanza who is perfect for the role, conveying a range of emotions from her rebellious and headstrong nature to a more vulnerable state where she has to choose between love and career, between family and work. Fabregas does an accurate depiction of the 1900s American man, confident in the dominance and privelege of his gender, if a bit awkward and bumbling when faced with a woman he falls for. Caisa Borromeo as Margaret also gives a convincing performance as the sister who is a homebody but has strong convictions of her own.

The chemistry of Borromeo and Azanza on stage makes for some very moving scenes of how sisters can be so brutally honest with each other in disagreement and yet will always be there for one another. They also represent the opposing forces of religion and the material world, art and science. Margaret cannot comprehend why her sister always has to want answers when sometimes faith is enough. When arguing seems to be going nowhere, Margaret opts to just play her music on the piano. It is during this segment that Henrietta gets her “Aha!” moment — when she realizes that the notes of the music are like the inherent pattern in her stars. What would become her groundbreaking Period-Luminosity Relation can be thought of as a tonal pattern where the pulsating stars from bright to dim are like high and low notes that produce a musical score.

These poignant scenes are masterfully directed by Virata, who put together a coherent, well-paced story that turns something as scientific as astronomy into something absolutely magical. Credit also goes to the cast who gave a wonderful ensemble performance as well as her top-notch creative team. Set and costume designer Joey Mendoza created atmosphere with a streamlined, modern aesthetic that places the emphasis on the characters and the drama. In lieu of overwrought, heavy sets, he opted to establish the period with choice furniture and accessories that defined the era as well as through historically accurate costumes with the right colors — somber earth tones for the women in a man’s world and sweet pastels for the rural, home-based Margaret. A lot is achieved with minimal structures that fuel the imagination, suggesting without showing too much.

You know it’s an observatory even without the giant telescope when Shaw emerges taking the stairs from an opening on the floor. Even a railing is sufficient to evoke the glorious experience of being on an ocean liner. The lighting of John Batalla is also crucial in achieving this realism, setting the right mood and highlighting the characters at important moments. Special lighting equipment was even used, together with a combination of scenic painting, tiny bulbs and video projections to create a wondrously ever-changing sky.

As the story unfolds, you are simply in awe of the majesty and the mystery of the universe and how it moves the spirit to know more and learn more despite limitations like discrimination. It is particularly relevant today when there are many obstacles to knowing the truth. How many falsehoods, for example, are taken as fact just because they come out often enough on our computer screens and smart phones, without anyone challenging them, trusting what social media feeds say is true instead of investigating and finding out for ourselves?

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Silent Sky will be running at Onstage Theater, Greenbelt 1 until March 25. For tickets contact Repertory Philippines at 843.3570 www.repertoryphilippines.ph or Ticketworld at 891.999 www.ticketworld.com.ph. Follow the authors on Instagram @ rickytchitov ; Twitter @RickyToledo23 Facebook - Ricky Toledo Chito Vijandre