Female scientists illuminate McCarter in play ‘Legacy of Light’

When I entered McCarter’s Matthews Theatre for a professional production of Karen Zacarías’s “Legacy of Light,” I was expecting the stage to look familiar, as its setting was one I know well: Princeton. Instead, I found a theater transformed into a Princeton full of sparkling planets, gold chandeliers, and much brighter rainbow hues than our current rainy spring allows. It’s a Princeton that oscillates between present-day New Jersey and 18th century France in fluid scenes, tied together by actors who deftly swap between jeans and lacy pastel gowns to portray the lives of two scientists living three hundred years apart.

“Legacy of Light” tells the interconnected stories of two female physicists, historical figure Émilie du Châtelet and fictional modern-day scientist Dr. Olivia Hastings Brown. Châtelet is known for building off of the ideas of scientists such as Isaac Newton and her long-lasting relationship with Voltaire, while fictional Hastings Brown is an astrophysicist living in Princeton, who has just discovered a new planet.

Zacarías told The Daily Princetonian that she decided to set the play in Princeton to find the “modern day equivalent” of Émilie du Châtelet, and described Princeton as a place of “women astrophysicists who are mothers” just like Châtelet.

“Your campus is the perfect place to cultivate that kind of intellectual curiosity, and the idea of a woman loving her work and still trying to maintain some kind of balance with her family,” Zacarías explained.

Princeton astrophysical science professor Jenny Greene was consulted during the production process to develop the scientific elements of the play, mainly seen in soliloquies about Hastings Brown’s discovery of a planet and in Châtelet’s work with the properties of light. Zacarías said she wanted to prepare for the Princetonians she described as a “generous but exacting audience.” The complex explanations of a developing planet certainly make for a powerful contrast with the burbling humor of the show, balancing a generous wit with precise scientific knowledge.

This interconnection of science and art defines much of the play; one scene brings an all-too-familiar scientific talk to life, as Hastings Brown adjusts the microphone of a lectern and thanks a tech person for their assistance. This moment infuses scholarly lectures with a sense of performance sometimes missing from the world of academia, showing how artistic flare can bring rigid physics to life.

What struck me the most about the show was how deeply women are centered in its narrative. Although Châtelet and Hastings Brown are both loving mothers throughout the course of the show, this does not prevent them from pursuing their scientific worth or maintaining a strong sense of self. Their male partners were supportive of their work, and, although the mood of the show ranges from silly to somber, women — and their passions, ideas, and loves — are always the center of its cosmos.

Perhaps the most emotionally poignant moments of the play were what Zacarías described as “joyful soliloquies about intellectual pursuit,” in which both Châtelet and Hastings Brown were empowered to take up the whole stage as they worked through scientific discoveries — commanding the audience with exuberance on their faces as they worked through scientific concepts like the properties of light. Their passion for their respective work was as palpable as their ardor for lovers or children, despite the impending danger of childbirth for Châtelet. Zacarías mentioned the issue of women’s health and reproductive rights as one that weighed on her, and one to which she hoped the play could bring some hope.

“Women in science is really important, but the science of women is also really important to keeping us alive,” she noted. I took the play’s final moment, in which Châtelet gazes into the audience as the lights go out, as a reminder that, even in the face of challenges to women’s health, luminaries like her continue to fight for their voices to be heard and shine their light.

“Legacy of Light” deals with difficult topics, such as death during childbirth and surrogate pregnancies, but carries them with a celebratory lightness. A sense of joy emanates from its humorous one-liners, such as the physical comedy, a gorgeously-glittering set design, and the many remarks about the shortcomings of men that brought the performance to a pause for a collective chuckling.

The climax of the show brings outpourings of emotion from each character, but it’s flavored with a dash of comic absurdity. There’s a Mad Lib quality of eccentric combinations to it all, with French and American characters crossing time and space to meet under the dazzling, candle-filled branches of Newton’s fictional apple tree — a highlight of the set design. Hastings Brown scrambles awkwardly around the trunk of the tree, seemingly trying to escape from her fears of motherhood in its branches, and the air rings with cries such as “you just got struck by lightning!” The play’s closing moments feel a bit like the explosions of color that portray Hastings Brown’s new-found planet during her lecture — a jumble of love, passion, and light.

“Legacy of Light” runs at McCarter through April 6.