Omar Metwally as Maurice Watkins

     Rosalind is paired with Maurice Wilkins who, like Rosalind, has already made a name for himself in their work and who has no interest in partnering with a woman. As played by Omar Metwally, Wilkins is just about as stuffy and impossible a human being as he can be. Even in his softer, more human moments early on, he couldn't possibly be more unnervingly abrasive. It is only the humanizing aspects of the plot later on that bring him to an honest, sympathetic state. Metwally is almost as annoying early in the play as his co-star Chlumsky. His voice takes on a coldness that is truly frigid.

     The play, one hour and forty-six minutes long, is often hard to listen to as he draws the antagonistic picture of a man who refuses to tolerate a colleague based on her gender. He will not call her by her title, Doctor, but insists on referring to her as Miss. He refuses to share credit with her for her theories and her work which forces her to work in isolation, apart from the man who should be her partner. The actor has a voice with no warmth, with nothing to betray Wilkins as a man until he has to become what he denies and then, surprisingly, he is a veritable Gary Cooper in tone and style. It would be intriguing to see Mr. Metwally in this role, to see the first performance and the last to see if can maintain these different parts of himself so well. In this format he does so with ease and with a growing appeal.

     Among the other men in her life, Rosalind corresponds with a graduate student in the United States who clearly falls in love with her from afar. When they meet there is an instant rapport which is lovely to hear. He brings a softness to her that she shows nowhere else in her life. This student named Don Caspar is beautifully played by Stephen Kunken. From his first letter to his final departure he brings into this study of the human existence a truly human existence. He gets and keeps the listener's sympathy and empathy, something the play is desperately in need of at the time of his first appearance.  Kunken delivers nicely throughout..

     The other men consist of her assistant, Ray Gosling played by Ben Rosenfield, who can't quite supply the humanity his character should supply though he does justice to the role, keeping his emotional distace, and her two rivals James Watson (played by David Corenswet) and Francis Crick (Aasif Mandvi) almost act as the comic foils of the play, a traitorous Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. When the play finally opens out into romantic melodrama they are gone and good as they are in those roles we are glad to have heard the last of them. 

     Taken together the five men make a perfect adversary for Anna Chlumsky's Rosalind, each taking on one aspect of that character for all she's worth.