Rosalind Franklin (Aria Alpert), a brilliant researcher showed up in Wilkins’ (Daniel Billet) lab, excited by the opportunity to partner with another scientist and was met with traditional societal barriers.  Franklin, a brilliant crystallographer with little people skills, decided to deal with Wilkins by concentrating on her work.  And what incredible work it was!   I marveled at playwright Anna Ziegler’s effective methods of showing different sides of Franklin. The memories, that showed how Franklin saw life in tiny complex substructures even as a child, were a vivid foreshadowing of her life’s work in crystallography.  Ms. Ziegler developed scenes of the scientist in the lab actually fine-tuning the precise x-ray equipment she needed; developing hundreds of photographs to her exact standards that resulted in concise, clear and ultimately history-making ones; and effectively but unknowingly using radiation techniques of the day that may have cost her her life. The letter writing relationship that developed between Franklin and Kasper (Ross Hellwig) was innocent and straightforward yet gave the audience slivers of insight into her as a person.  Actually the short scene between them, in which the audience got a glimpse of the wishes and dreams of the woman, was riveting.  The vacations Franklin took to view nature and her continual amazement at its intricate beauty, gave the audience a peek at the possible layers of this complex individual.  Ms. Alpert brought to life a multifaceted Franklin so the audience was fascinated by who this woman was as much as by what she accomplished.  

Mr. Billet gave the audience Wilkins, an accomplished scientist, possibly naïve and/or short sighted but definitely a product of the old school approach to women, who tentatively welcomed Franklin to the lab and then proceeded to try to treat her as his assistant.  I must admit I was a little thrown by the romantic overtones revealed by Wilkins late in the play since up to that point he seemed genuinely unable to figure Franklin out and thus repeatedly attempted to start their relationship over again, perhaps hoping she would fit into his conventional notions.   Gosling (Graham Norris), her earnest graduate student who was awed by Franklin’s genius, was outraged on her behalf in the non-acknowledgement of Franklin’s contributions in the race to focus and uncover the DNA sequencing.  Mr. Norris’ portrayal hit the audience hard when his earnest efforts ended up contributing to the non-acknowledgement yet he added very important human background to the unfolding historical events in the development of the DNA double helix.  Although shorter in stature than the real Watson, Mr. Gould’s brash, opportunistic and opinionated portrayal of the young scientist had the audience following his every move even down to the famous hair.  Crick, a contemporary of Wilkins, revealed a highly intelligent researcher who wondered at Watson’s methods but who decided to follow along anyway and focus on the development of the DNA model.  Wilkins’ relationship with Crick and gradually with Watson, laid the groundwork for the sharing of information prepared by Franklin which historians argue may have given Watson and Crick vital insight needed to create the DNA double helix model.