Stella Feehily’s taut drama, The Lightest Element explores how questioning social norms can almost be as difficult as changing scientific orthodoxy.
U.S.A. Boston, 1956. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, one of the 20th century's most eminent astronomers is to be appointed Chair of Astronomy, and the first woman ever to head a department at Harvard. Two things, however, stand in her way: her male colleagues entrenched conservatism and a covert investigation to attempt to expose her as a communist sympathiser. When a young student journalist asks to profile her it feels like an opportunity for Cecelia to take control of her own narrative – on the assumption, of course, that the invitation is what it seems…
Associate Director Alice Hamilton directs at the Hampstead Theatre, with previous credits including The Dumb Waiter, The Memory of Water, The Harmony Test, Nineteen Gardens, Out of Season, and Every Day I Make Greatness Happen.
Other plays from Stella Feehily include Dreams of Violence, Duck and O Go My Man, and This May Hurt a Bit.
