Maureen Hunter

This play is set in late eighteenth century Capri, and is about a scientist trying to map the transit of Venus to determine the distance between the earth and the sun. The action of the play revolves more around the three women he leaves behind as he travels the world to find a good spot to see the transit. While science is the driver of the conflict, the main story actually revolves around the love interest he leaves behind and his failure to achieve success in his affairs of the heart. It show more is depressingly obvious that the playwright wants us to believe that the pursuit of science was much less important than the pursuit of love, and that our sympathy is all supposed to be with the woman who is left behind and not the scientist who is encountering so much difficulty meeting the goal that obsesses him. Unfortunately, I tend to be somewhat of a contrarian (and a scientist), and am not always willing to go exactly where I am pointed. This is one of those cases. show less