"Biography of a Constellation," by Lila Rose Kaplan '02, is an experimental play that evolves in concentric circles through time and space. Moving from a Greek myth to a 19th-century Harvard observatory, then on to a present-day New York planetarium, a constellation and a galaxy, the play, showing now through Nov. 2 as one of three plays in Perishable Theatre's 14th International Women's Playwriting Festival, relates the stories of three women who learn what challenges they are willing to face in pursuit of their passions.
It is by no means, however, an exaggerated feminist display of the kind that is often difficult for anyone, male or female, to take seriously. It is a modest but compelling expression of female resolve that also raises themes that are undeniably applicable to all of humanity.
"Biography of a Constellation" is billed as a story inspired by Annie Jump Cannon, one of several women, called "the computers," employed at the Harvard Observatory to compile astronomical data in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, the show also recounts the classical myth of a princess chained to a rock to be devoured by sea monsters. And it relates the story of a planetarium announcer, passionate about astronomy and equally eager to revolutionize the gender binary and the roles it compels men and women to play in society. The last and longest of the plays presented at the festival, "Biography of a Constellation," runs a little over an hour and weaves together the fates of these three women.
The play begins in a dark planetarium, where the Planetarium Announcer, played by Elise Morrison GS - a student in the Brown/Trinity Repertory Consortium - introduces the planetarium's show: "Meet the Constellations," framed as an educational program for children. The show relates the story of one constellation in particular - Andromeda, which is linked to a Greek myth and contains a galaxy of the same name.
In between sections of Andromeda's story, the Announcer narrates the stages in the life of a star - birth, childhood, aging and death.
"We begin at the end," she says. "The death of a star is visible long before you can detect its origin."
In the first scene of the play, the audience travels forward in time to the archives of the Harvard Observatory, where the Archival Librarian, played by Gloria Crist, claims that she is 133 years old and Annie Jump Cannon herself. She is stunned when she receives a phone call saying that the woman she believes herself to be has died. Throughout the play, the Librarian lurks around the observatory studying the Andromeda galaxy and pestering Cannon's grandson Gregory Higher (Gregory Moss MFA'08), a Harvard astronomy professor who is struggling to write his grandmother's eulogy. Aware of his grandmother's deep passion for astronomy and her extensive work at Harvard, he comes to the archives seeking inspiration for his speech. He is baffled by the fact that the Librarian repeatedly claims to be his grandmother. Ultimately, they are both deeply troubled by the death of Annie Jump Cannon, albeit for different reasons, and this provides the foundation for an unlikely and comical connection on stage.
This narrative alternates with the Announcer's asides and the story of the Greek mythical figure of Andromeda, played by Jillian Blevins. The phases of a star's life are reflected in the separate trajectories of each woman's story through time.
"This play is about watching each of these women advance through each (phase) to the next place of being," Kaplan told The Herald. "The play belongs to all three of the women, not just one. Their love of the stars propels them forward to make progress, both scientific and also personal."
The next character we meet is the princess Andromeda, daughter of Cassiopeia, the queen of Ethiopia, also played by Gloria Crist. In the original myth, Andromeda is tied to a rock to be consumed by sea monsters as punishment ordained by the Gods for her mother's extreme vanity. In Kaplan's reinterpretation of this story, the rock is represented on stage by Crist, symbolizing Cassiopeia's responsibility for her daughter's captivity. The plot follows Andromeda's progression through three different situations of confinement, first chained to a rock, then to Perseus (Bryan Kimmelman), the rescuer she is forced to marry, and ultimately to the sky itself as a constellation.
The Planetarium Announcer makes sure to point out to her audience, with witty and not overbearing skepticism, that Andromeda's story is a generic fairy tale, one with a typical happy ending in which a woman is saved by a man. In the world of Kaplan's play, however, a docile Andromeda is nowhere to be found. Andromeda wants nothing more than to take pictures of stars through her telescope, and Blevins succeeds at portraying her as a hybrid of impassioned curiosity and sagacious composure.
Perseus just wants to paint. He refers to himself as a "deeply misunderstood visual artist," and Kimmelman pulls off an entertaining caricature of a tortured and somewhat ditzy painter, portraying a character who is far from the imposing male hero typical of Greek mythology. Though Andromeda is always bound against her will - to the rock, to Perseus, and finally to the sky - the roles of dominator and dominated are turned upside down as she manipulates the quixotic Perseus into an accomplice to her ultimate goal - exploring the stars.
Enthralled by Andromeda and inspired by her dogged resolve to do what she loves, Perseus is moved to paint and complies with her plan. He paints her into the sky as a constellation, thus freeing her to do what she loves, making her confinement also a liberation.
"Andromeda was a jumping-off point," Kaplan said. "A princess who is chained to a rock because she is a princess seemed to go along with the theme of questioning what it means to be a woman in society." For Kaplan, it seemed similarly mythic that Annie Jump Cannon and the other "computers" were helping to create a map of the universe.
Kaplan chose to triple-cast Gloria Crist as Annie Jump Cannon in the recent past, the Archival Librarian in the present and Cassiopeia in the mythical past to help reinforce the theme of connectivity in the play.
"It's the idea that we are all affecting each other all the time," she said. "An ancient mythic queen and an old librarian can have some things in common."
Overall, Crist's separate portrayals are appropriately nuanced. She is frazzled as the Librarian, yet exudes a gentle wisdom when playing Cannon. However, though thematically effective, the downside to such casting is that it does occasionally result in rapid and murky character transitions, leaving the audience confused in a play that is already challenging to follow. Overall, however, Crist's performances are varied and effective, and her shifts between different time periods and lives are nearly seamless.
The Planetarium Announcer is abrasive and bold. She is the play's third female voice and is the most personable of the characters.
"She is the audience's friend," Kaplan said." She has the most formalized language when she talks about the stars, and the most everyday when she talks about herself."
Morison is a pleasure to watch in her role as the Announcer, aptly merging wit and cynicism with insights vital to the show. Addressing the audience as children, she discusses themes that are far from childish - "cultural conditioning," "existential crises," feminism, even her own bizarre love problems - with hilariously sarcastic didacticism. In so doing, she provides the connective tissue necessary for audience members to link the phases of a star's life to those of each of the play's three women. Her instructive voice helps the audience to weave together the worlds of the play long before their actual convergence at the show's end.
"Biography of a Constellation" plays tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. on a program with two shorter plays. "Lazarus Disposed," by Desi Moreno-Penson, tells the story of Bethany, an outlandish wife trying to cope after the loss of her husband, or rather his magical disappearance into her kitchen sink. Her lover, Ferdinand, is played by former Herald opinions columnist Patrick Harrison '08. "Lizzy Izzy," by Holly Jensen, relates the tale of 18-year-old Isabella, a Portuguese exotic dancer about to go on trial for a crime that her life's tribulations fated her to commit.
