Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.“Why are you still talking?” asks Professor Henry Norris Russell of PhD student Cecilia Payne. “Don’t you know when to be quiet?” Payne has just submitted her thesis on the composition of stars, concluding that they are made mostly of hydrogen and helium. She’s right. But this is 1925, her findings are radical and, besides, she’s a young woman. It will take another four years for Russell to acknowledge her discovery — and then he will barely mention her.When to be quiet is one of the running themes of Stella Feehily’s fascinating if fitful play about this trailblazing astronomer and the battles she — and many other female scientists — faced in an ego-heavy and sexist academic world. We next join her in 1956, now Payne-Gaposchkin (her husband is Russian), when, by dint of scientific brilliance and political acumen, she has been appointed the first female full professor at Harvard. But can she become the chair of astronomy in the teeth of opposition from crusty old dons and an underhand campaign to paint her as a communist sympathiser?That question comes to a head when Sally, a young would-be journalist, is sent to conduct an interview, heavily briefed by her creepy boyfriend to dig up some dirt. It is one of the best scenes in the play as Cecilia, spotting Sally’s intent but also her reluctance, cracks open a bottle of Polish vodka and spills some truths. It’s over to Sally to work out how to respond.It is a gripping subject and Feehily raises great questions about the impact of prejudice and personal interest on progress. But the script struggles with the weight of exposition, some sketchy characterisation and the pointed delivery of contemporary resonances. One reactionary old academic rails against “progressive philosophies” on campus — the parallel with today is valid and disturbing, but it feels too strategically introduced.Still, that prof is, pleasingly, a bit part in what is Cecilia’s story. She is played with tremendous zest and wit by Maureen Beattie, who suggests her character’s sharp mix of darting intellect and shrewd pragmatism, and is well supported by Rina Mahoney as Cecilia’s watchful assistant and by Annie Kingsnorth as Sally.Director Alice Hamilton makes great use of the theatre’s revolve, sending characters spinning around the stage as if in orbit. Sarah Beaton’s set is backed by a curved, planetarium-like screen, sometimes studded with constellations, sometimes with scribbled equations, catching something of the thrill of astronomy and the beauty of these great celestial bodies. It might not quite reach the stars, then. But the play ends on a high, with 76-year-old Cecilia delivering the Henry Norris Russell Prize Lecture. With richly enjoyable irony, she addresses the young women in her audience: “Don’t let anyone shut you up. Make some noise, ladies!”★★★☆☆To October 12, hampsteadtheatre.com
