Stolen honor

WORCESTER — When the 1962 Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology was awarded to James Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins in 1962, Rosalind Franklin had been dead for four years.

Her work, however, had played a key role in the discovery of the molecular structure of DNA for which the three were primarily being honored. Franklin was "missing" in more than one sense of the word. Watson and Crick’s paper revealing the structure, published in Nature in 1953, was based on the now famous X-ray diffraction image of DNA as a double helix that Franklin had overseen taking at King's College London in 1952. It is known as Photograph 51. Franklin published a paper on her X-ray findings in the same issue of Nature. But Watson and Crick were at rival Cambridge University in England and had initially obtained the photograph without Franklin's permission. They ran with the glory.

The feeling that Franklin was unfairly marginalized and overlooked is an issue American playwright Anna Ziegler explores in "Photograph 51." They play was to have been presented by the 4th Wall Stage Company for eight performances beginning March 19 at the Worcester Historical Museum to celebrate Women's History Month. The production has been rescheduled to late May because of concerns about the coronavirus, but will have continuing relevance.

"This an important play because of numerous factors," said Barbara Guertin, managing director of 4th Wall Stage Company, who is co-directing the production with Robbin Joyce.

Jane J. Lee for National Geographic has written "even if she (Franklin) had been alive, she may still have been overlooked. Like many women scientists, Franklin was robbed of recognition throughout her career."

"Photograph 51" had a successful run on London's West End in 2015 with Nicole Kidman as Franklin.

But Guertin noted noted that "Watson & Crick" was recently the correct response to a "Jeopardy!" game question concerning DNA. Being marginalized can linger.

The controversy about Franklin's role being shunted to one side gradually grew following her death from ovarian cancer at the young age of 37 (likely caused by X-ray exposure). Watson's own account "The Double Helix" in 1968 (Watson is still alive) helped fan the flames when he wrote "Rosy, of course, did not directly give us her data. For that matter, no one at King's realized they were in our hands."

Guertin said that one of the messages of the play is, "Be true to yourself but always watch your own back."

Last year for Women's History Month, 4th Wall staged "The Women Who Mapped the Stars," a play about five women astronomers at the Harvard College Observatory beginning in the late 1800s who pioneered modern astrophysics and created the celestial roadmap we use today but were largely ignored by history until quite recently.

"There's so much she (Franklin) did like 'The Women Who Mapped the Stars' — women weren't allowed to get any credit," Guertin said.

Franklin's work as an X-ray crystallographer did get her an invitation to work as a researcher at King's College in 1951. Her previous research on coal molecules had been in response to the terrible smogs that would engulf London in mid-20th century.

But as the play suggests, she soon feared on arrival at King's College that she was expected to be her colleague Maurice Wilkins' assistant in his DNA research. She felt doubly up against the establishment by being a woman and Jewish.

Still, the Franklin of "Photograph 51" is a determined scientist committed to the "work," but Wilkins often finds her insufferable. The American-born Watson ("very hungry, a real driver," Guertin said) approaches Wilkins and asks for his help with the "race" to discover the structure of DNA. Franklin wants to do further research before running with photograph 51 and hasn't told Wilkins about it, but after Wilkins sees the photograph he takes matters into his own hands.

Guertin said the structure of the play alternates between the major male characters giving monologues about their involvement with the DNA story and scenes of interaction between them and Franklin. 

"It's an eye-opener but it's very well written," she said. "It's all about the acting — making sure the characters are believable." 

The 4th Wall production has Jourdan Figueroa in the role of Franklin (she was also Blanche in 4th Wall's "A Streetcar Named Desire). 

"Jourdan has always been for me one of the finest actors in Massachusetts," Guertin said. Furthermore, "Jourdan in a haunting way looks like Rosalind Franklin."

Other casts members include Erik Johnsen as Watson, Fred D'Angelo as Crick, Cory Scott as Wilkins, Connor Lee as Ray Gosling (Franklin's graduate student assistant,) and Majdi Ammari as Don Caspar (a Jewish American scientist).

"I'm a method actor and director," Guertin said. "I won't let a scene move on until I feel everyone is completely (immersed) in who their character is." 

Franklin may have been on the spectrum, Guertin surmised. She's "Absolutely brilliant but slightly lacking in social skills. You see how committed she is in what she's looking for. Rosalind is so committed to the project. The research gets in the hands of people who run it further than than she's comfortable with. But she did find the secret of life."

Photograph 51 has been called "the most important photo ever taken." Knowing how the corkscrew-like DNA strand was configured, scientists could determine just how genes, the building-blocks of life, actually did their job.

But "Photograph 51" is a dramatic play and not a science lesson, Guertin said.

There is humor, and the play is "not a scathing rebuke … You see how it unfolds. She (Franklin) takes blame as well. But the best scientists would continue to do experiments until they had a comfort level."

In the end, "I think it's instructional by sharing how everything went down. You can have your own conclusions," Guertin said. 

4th Wall is developing a niche for itself in presenting plays that deal with science in some shape or form, with "Photograph 51," "The Women Who Mapped the Stars," and earlier productions such as "Orchids to Octopi: An Evolutionary Love Story."

"We do love history and science. We're kind of a quirky, off-beat theater company for that fact," Guertin said. "Being Worcester, there's a lot of science here. We've discovered our audiences love the science pieces."

For more information, visit www.4thwallstagecompany.org and www.worcesterhistory.org.

Contact Richard Duckett at richard.duckett@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @TGRDuckett