‘They Promised Her the Moon’ at the Old Globe in Balboa Park through May 12.
By Eric George Tauber
SAN DIEGO — Possibly every American has heard the names Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, John Glenn and Chuck Yeager. They were the men with the right stuff: the smarts, courage and ambition to fly fighter jets and touch the stars. But have you heard of Jerrie Cobb and the Mercury 13? They were the women in the astronaut program in the 1960s who also reached for the stars… then hit the glass ceiling.
“You can’t ever forget you’re a woman, ‘cause they won’t.”
Jerrie Cobb is being confined to an isolation tank to see how well she can take the rigors of space travel. Prolonged isolation can lead to great anxiety and hallucinations. The men, after four hours, started talking to ghosts. If Jerrie can pass this test, she can open the door of astronaut training for other women. If she fails, it will slam shut. No pressure.
Morgan Hallett gives a strong performance with great integrity as Jerrie Cobb. Alone with the company of her thoughts, Jerrie reminisces about the forces that brought her to this point and those that tried to hold her back. Michael Pemberton plays her dad, Harvey, as an eminently likable country boy who’s really proud of his little girl, encouraging her aspirations.
Lanna Joffrey plays her mother, Helena, a consummately traditional housewife who insists that the roles of wife and mother are God’s assignments for women. Any other aspirations are simply wrong. She earnestly repeats these assertions, assiduously quoting scripture, in order to convince herself of them. As high as Jerrie soars, her mother’s insistent voice is always in the back of her head.
But Jerrie has another role model in Jackie Cochran, one of the first female pilots and the founder of the WASPs (Women’s Auxiliary Service Pilots). They were a group of civilian women during World War Two who were invaluable in testing and ferrying military aircraft and training pilots. They filled a crucial gap in “manpower” so that the men would be available to fly combat missions. Had the war gone on a bit longer, they might have done that too.
“You can’t be a pilot and stay a lady.”
May Beth Fisher and Matthew Boston have a fun repartee as Jackie Cochran and Dr. Lovelance, bickering as only old friends can. Confident to the point of brash, Jackie Cochran makes her presence felt and doesn’t take no for an answer. Dr. Lovelace’s interest in female astronauts is more pragmatic than progressive. Jerrie weighs seventy-nine pounds less than John Glenn. Lighter astronauts means that much more of his equipment can be loaded onto the capsule.
Like all great theatre, They Promised Her the Moon is a mixture of facts and imagination. We’ll never know what really went through Jerrie’s head during her ten hours in the tank. But the inanely sexist questions from male reporters: those weren’t fiction. Jerrie Cobb passed every test with flying colors and should have been one of the first astronauts. But social and political forces were just not on her side.
This season was chosen well before current events. NASA was supposed to have two women do a spacewalk together, but they only had one suit the right size. So it looks like we still have a ways to go.
And we continue to wrestle with the proper roles for men and women. In Orthodox Jewish circles, women cannot be ordained as rabbis, don’t count for a minyan and cannot be heard singing in public. In one traditional prayer, men thank God that they were not born as women. And some wonder why Jewish numbers are shrinking.
Hats off to Playwright Laura Ollstein, Director Giovanna Sardelli and the team at the Old Globe for putting together a compelling show with cohesive designs and a tight ensemble. It’s a thought-provoking slice of history that will keep you talking over drinks later.
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Tauber is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts. He may be contacted via eric.tauber@sdjewishworld.com