Photograph 51
In 1952, chemist and X-ray crystallographer, Rosalind Franklin, captured the first clear picture of a strand of DNA, revealing the double-helix structure and revolutionizing the field of genetics. This landmark photograph, perhaps one of the most significant images ever taken, known simply as Photo 51, garnered two men, Watson and Crick the 1962 Nobel Prize, while Franklin’s contributions went largely ignored by the exclusively male scientific community. Anna Ziegler’s award winning play sharply focuses and brings to light the shadowy figure of a brilliant, female physicist responsible for discovering the shape of life itself and whose recognition, until now, has been long overdue.
Deftly directed by Simon Levy, Ziegler’s moving tribute painstakingly reveals the flagrant sexism for women in the field of science at the mid-point of the 20th century through the lens of Franklin’s professional and personal struggles among her male counterparts. In a time when women were prohibited from teaching physics at most Ivy League universities, let alone take classes, the rise of solitary pioneer Franklin is as compelling as it is historic. Banned from dining in the common mess hall with the other male scientists, Franklin meticulously devotes her attention to biological molecules in a hostile environ of male privilege. Forced to endure and deflect unwanted advances from her stuffy colleague Maurice Wilkins (Daniel Billet) and contemporary scorn, Franklin, skillfully rendered by Aria Alpert, coolly projects a tough exterior and keeps her work and her personal life at arm’s length.
But this overriding sense of propriety and science as usual attitude may have been Franklin’s ultimate undoing as Ziegler suggests in the unfolding events of the play, based on Brenda Maddox’s biography, “The Dark Lady of DNA” and James Watson’s “The Double Helix.” Ziegler ingeniously balances the conflicting and complex character of a woman so bent on protecting her work through introversion that she makes herself a vulnerable target for prying eyes at the hand of Wilkins. Whether a rebuffed Wilkins sabotaged her findings by placing the crucial photo into the rash hands of an ego-driven Watson, or took careless pride in her findings is unclear.
Even in the best of circumstances, Ziegler underscores an unsentimental inevitability that Franklin’s work would have gone unmerited given the climate of gender bias at the time. It is not surprising then, that Franklin’s memory has been fraught with character assignations bordering on thinly disguised justifications from Watson and Crick and the scientific community for neglecting her contributions. The only surprise is that Ziegler feeds into the notion that Franklin’s personal shortcomings helped to perpetuate a lack of loyalty and disadvantage. This makes for a somewhat unsympathetic heroine, but is nonetheless a fascinating portrayal of hubris revealing the chinks in Franklin’s armor. But her tragic flaw did not only cost her the coveted and deserved Nobel, Ziegler goes a bit further hinting that Franklin may have unknowingly sacrificed her life.
Ziegler completes the picture by overlaying a contradictory nonchalance for self-preservation in Franklin when she breezes through an X-ray beam that her assistant Gosling, brightly played by Graham Norris with bouncing enthusiasm, refuses to cross. This seemingly innocuous scene foreshadows Franklin’s diagnosis of ovarian cancer, taking her life at the early age of 37.
The theme of self-preservation echoes throughout and becomes a sort of ironic double-helix twist in Franklin’s arc and emotional appeal by the end of the play. In an attempt to preserve and protect her work with a frosty sensibility Franklin finds no allies, only contempt. Her choice to work primarily alone keeps her findings untainted, but creates an aura of mystery surrounding her studies. Her rigorous methodology that did not rely on half-concocted conclusions – she was only two steps away from thoroughly concluding her research before creating a model of the structure – may have cost her invaluable time for Watson and Crick to exploit. Every self-preserving act ultimately undermines her, and the one she chooses to ignore, may have caused her premature death.
This bitter cycle, however, does not embitter Franklin, rather like a true scientist uninterested with personal glory, she is ecstatic by Watson and Crick’s findings for the very fact that the helix was discovered. This selfless joy in her work is all the more painful to see, as she will not live long enough to know her work made their discovery possible.
After Franklin’s work is surreptitiously used, the play loses focus and becomes emotionally overexposed. A fuzzy pen pal relationship with a fellow scientist, Caspar, (Ross Hellwig), hints at the possibility of romance, cut short by her illness. The play ends with a dream sequence between Wilkins and Franklin that is incongruent with the rest of the show. But it does give Franklin her cathartic moment, and an opportunity for her character to let down her guard in a last act of self-preservation.
The cast is excellent with Alpert a shining star of subtle transparency that gives Franklin a heart and soul through her biting remarks and quietly assertive expressions. Daniel Billet makes Wilkins a likable misfit and Ian Gould is wickedly charming with eager energy and a smugness that sizzles.
Minimal set is required as most of the action takes place in the lab, but Travis Gale Lewis cleverly uses the black box background as a chalkboard that by the play’s end is full of proofs and equations. On the floor, the double-helix glows as a luminous reminder of the footrace towards the finish line that is well underway.
Simon Levy’s outstanding direction heightens the engrossing intimate moments that further fleshes out the characters. Mining scenes of their physical humor and wit, Levy makes the scientific inquiry magical and approachable. There is limited jargon and never confusing or overly burdened specifics, and Levy proves he can juggle a tightly personal expose without losing sight of the headier storyline.
Ziegler’s play, which won the 2008 STAGE International Script Competition, tackles the darker side of science while paying much deserved homage to a woman who was the first to see the shape of life, even if she was unable to see the shape of her discovery in the years to come.
____________________________________
Theater: The Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave. 90029
Web Site: http://www.fountaintheatre.com/
Tickets: (323) 663-1525
Dates: through May 3, 2009 - Thurs, Fri, and Sat at 8pm, Sundays at 2pm