Lauren Gunderson’s play about female astronomers also packs a lot of humor.

Theatreworks brings the mysterious night sky, the topic of Silent Sky, to luminous life in its current production at the Colorado Springs Ent Center. Lauren Gunderson’s play is based on the life of pioneering female astronomer, Henrietta Leavitt. Leavitt discovered “Leavitt’s Law,” which provided astronomy with a powerful technique for measuring distances in space.

Leavitt’s life and career is set against the backdrop of the early 20^th century, including references to the Suffragette movement and women wearing pants. The play opens in 1902 as Leavitt joins the Harvard College Observatory, where she becomes one of a small group of women “computers.”

The women performed mathematical calculations and analysis of astronomical data but were sequestered from the male-dominated sphere of actual observation. In the early going, Leavitt wasn’t even allowed to look through a telescope.

Joye Cook-Levy directs a lively production that makes excellent use of the Dusty Loo Bon Vivant Theatre’s space. Actors circle around the stage, ascend portable sets of stairs, or ping-pong dialogue back and forth across the stage as they exchange observational data on stars.

The cast is generally strong. Leslie O’Carroll, as Williamina Fleming, another pioneering female astronomer, is a standout. Williamina is sympathetic to Henrietta and wryly realistic about human nature — particularly the social world of the early 20^th century. O’Carroll makes the most of the character’s droll one-liners.

Marcin Mesa adroitly handles the many-sided role of Peter Shaw, a gatekeeper between the women computers and Edward Pickering, director of the observatory. Shaw orbits Henrietta and interacts with her from a variety of perspectives. Mesa gives authentic life to the character’s changing attitudes.

The lighting design by Josh Hemmo contributes an essential magic to a play whose protagonist is preoccupied with measuring the light from stars. The lighting scheme reaches a virtuosic peak as Leavitt’s life is ending but her accomplishments are just being realized. Shades of blue and purple and smaller twinkling bulbs immerse the audience in the night sky, creating a sense of mystery and majesty.

The costumes, however, were puzzling. Leavitt and Shaw were clearly clothed in early 20^th century garb while Prentiss Benjamin’s Annie Cannon, another female astronomer, was at one point clad in a floor-length metallic coat.

Erika Mori and Kyla Diane Kenndy in ‘Silent Sky. | Photo: Isaiah Downing – Ent Center for the Arts at UCCS

Rom-com subplot

It’s ironic that for about 15 minutes a play about a woman astronomer who pointedly leaves behind conventional female roles threatens to become a rom-com, and quite a good one. The subplot of Leavitt and Peter Shaw discovering each other and exploring the possibilities of relationship creates the greatest amusement and drama of the play.

Leavitt’s professional life, in contrast, is told almost exclusively through exposition. For example, the inaccessible Dr. Pickering — representative of the masculine preserve that exploits the women astronomers’ contributions while withholding recognition or challenging work — never appears in the play.

This contributes to the play’s somewhat didactic tone. Another factor is the character of Leavitt, who starts out brave and inspiring and stays that way. “I insist on the exceptional,” she announces in the first scene with her stay-at-home sister. Leavitt is not just heroic, she’s a paragon. It’s a bit heavy-handed.

Fortunately, the play packs quite a bit of humor. Just when we’re handed a “message” that can hardly be missed, a joke quickly follows.

The play climaxes with an inspiring review of Leavitt’s accomplishments and the role these have played in our understanding of our place in the cosmos and how that knowledge continues to grow. Leavitt, who is dying, exits into a bright white light. “Wonder will always get us there!” she declares. This production made a believer out of me.