Two years ago I saw this play performed and it blew me away. Reading it added an extra layer of depth to the incredible story of a real female astronomer, Henrietta Leavitt, in the early 1900s whose discoveries laid the groundwork for Hubble and others, but who is rarely mentioned. Gunderson is quickly becoming one of my favorite playwrights with her clever dialogue and ability to immediately connect with the audience. This pairs an inspiring true story with dynamic writing, making it one of my favorite plays. ( )

A look at the life and career of Henrietta Leavitt, one of the first of the Harvard computers, and the one who discovered the information that allowed us to determine the distance to the stars - and then was denied access to her own data because the men needed to use it to do the work she made possible. Well written, compelling, but with perhaps a bit too much emphasis on a love interest (I do not know if that is legitimate or added for the sake of getting the work staged; I don't know her personal story well enough). It's interesting reading the character descriptions, where Leaveitt's sister is described as "sweet", and then to meet a character in the story that is anything but "sweet". The woman had a lot more spice than sweet, which is not a complaint. A truly "sweet" character often ends up being boring, and this character wasn't boring, though she did try to dissuade Henrietta from following her dreams. I found this play much better than the work by this author on Emilie du Chatelet, perhaps because it was a bit less gimmicky (though there were gimmicks - that seems to be almost required in plays written in the last couple of decades of the last and the first decade of this century). The story was not swallowed by the gimmicks. Definitely recommended. ( )