Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...And lest you think the feminist content of the evening is passé, consider this: when physicist Anne L’Huillier accepted the 2023 Nobel Prize, she observed, “120 years ago, Marie Skłodowska-Curie was the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. I am the fifth.” Silent Sky is a delight, reminding us how the theater can expand our minds as well as our emotions."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...“Silent Sky”, now on the stage at Citadel Theatre in Lake Forest is another example of women in power who had no power. Written by Lauren Gunderson, “Silent Sky” is the story of Henrietta Leavitt, a 19th century astronomer who was brought to Harvard University’s Observatory to serve as a “computer”. This is what they called the women who did the work for those men who were called “astronomers”. As we see in this story, the women did all the work but due to gender were not recognized for doing so. Leavitt ( deftly played by Melissa Harlow) was able to do things that opened the door for many great astronomers to move far closer to their dreams ( which were always hers as well)."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...The very likable cast is led by talented Equity actress, Melissa Harlow as Henrietta Leavitt. From this charismatic actress’ first words, the audience falls in love with her character. Ms. Harlow gives a perfect, totally realistic portrayal of Henrietta in a performance that guides the entire production. Adam Thatcher demonstrates his gift for comedy as the shy, bumbling, tongue-tied Peter Shaw. Two members of Promethean Theatre Ensemble are costarring in this production."
Chicago Theater and Arts - Highly Recommended
"...A true story based on what Ratcliff grad and astronomer Henrietta Leavitt faced in 1900 when she left Wisconsin and family to join the Harvard University Observatory, (she used her dowry to move and get settled), the play follows her discoveries and interaction with female coworkers called “computers” and a male who is the boss’ assistant."
Life and Times - Highly Recommended
"..."Silent Sky" is a superbly written and exceptionally well-acted and directed production now playing at Citadel Theatre in Lake Forest through March 17, 2024. The two-act play dramatizes Henrietta's work at Harvard, as well as her family interactions and her love life. The result is heavenly. There's romance, intrigue, happiness, laughter, tears, disappointment, and triumph - in short, all the makings of a great story."
Splash Magazine - Highly Recommended
"...Now, Citadel Theatre in Lake Forest brings the Lauren Gunderson play, SILENT SKY to life telling the story of Henrietta Leavitt and other qualified 19th-century female astronomers employed at the Harvard Observatory who, because of their gender, were not even allowed to use the telescope. Instead, they had study the sky through photographs."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...When Albert Einstein first published his "Special Theory of Relativity" in 1905, it was hard for men of science to accept Einstein's theory, but even harder for them to treat women as capable colleagues; and it is the treatment that women receive in male-dominated industries that is the subject of "Silent Sky," written by Lauren Gunderson and directed by Beth Wolf at Citadel Theatre through March 17."
