April 21, 2026
When Chalmers Hardenbergh first saw the Hubble Deep Field, he was astounded. The iconic image revealed thousands of distant galaxies.
“It echoed in my heart and in my mind,” said Hardenbergh, a playwright and 1967 UC Berkeley astronomy alum.
Still, Hardenbergh never considered developing a play about the Hubble Deep Field until he read a 2021 article in The Atlantic that alluded to the internal controversy over the decision to survey that area of space. Hardenbergh knew he needed to contact Bob Williams.
Like Hardenbergh, Williams studied astronomy at UC Berkeley, though he graduated in 1962, before Hardenbergh arrived. Williams literally wrote the book on the Hubble Deep Field, based on his central role in its discovery. From 1993 to 1998, he served as the Space Telescope Science Institute’s director, which afforded him 10 percent of the Hubble Space Telescope’s time to use at his discretion.
Some high-level astronomers criticized Williams’ decision to have the telescope spend 10 consecutive days and nights looking at a supposedly empty patch of sky near the Big Dipper. However, that relative darkness allowed Hubble to find some of the most distant celestial objects ever seen. Hardenbergh latched onto this dynamic for his play, REDshift.
REDSHIFT STAGE MANAGER SYDNEY WEINBERGER (LEFT), DIRECTOR MARK ROUTHIER (CENTER), AND PLAYWRIGHT CHARLES HARDENBERGH (RIGHT)
Photos courtesy of Charles Hardenbergh
As a supporter of science communication and the arts, Williams was intrigued by the project and agreed to assist.
“It was a great, creative effort for me, but the final script is the work of Chalmers,” said Williams. “I learned a lot about the playwriting process, and it launched me in a different direction. Standard playwriting requires the plot and action to be effectuated entirely by dialogue. It is very different from the normal writing of prose.”
ROBERT WILLIAMS (LEFT) AND THE MANY GALAXIES REVEALED BY THE FAMOUS HUBBLE DEEP FIELD IMAGE (RIGHT)
Photos courtesy of Robert Williams and the Hubble Deep Field Team (STScI) and NASA/ESA
REDshift follows a composite character named Elisse from age 8 to 29. Through her childhood and early career, Elisse meets several prominent astronomers, including Williams, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, John Bahcall, and a computer simulation of Edwin Hubble.
Though Elisse is a fictional character, she represents a very personal part of Williams’ life. Elisse is autistic, and that characteristic influences her scientific interests and skills. Williams’ wife, Elaine, is a pediatric psychologist who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of autism; the couple founded a nonprofit to help adults with autism find jobs.
An estimated one in 31 children is on the autism spectrum, yet remarkably few stories focus on neurodiverse characters. That lack of meaningful representation meant that the play’s creators put extra thought and care into incorporating Elisse’s autism in a natural and respectful manner.
“I hope audiences appreciate Elisse’s autistic characteristics and creativity, and most importantly, that the public comes to appreciate autism as a condition, not as a disability,” said Williams.
REDshift pushes boundaries in another way: it uses projected images to amplify the script. Hardenbergh was fortunate to find a local venue — the Southworth Planetarium at the University of Southern Maine — to host a series of staged readings in January 2025. As the characters discussed various celestial sights, the planetarium illuminated the image on its domed ceiling.
“Elisse is looking up into the night sky and is fascinated,” said Hardenbergh, “The idea is amplified by the audience sitting in the planetarium with their head tilted back, looking up at the stars.”
REDshift would go on to sell out all four of its performances.
Hardenbergh and Williams wanted the play to bring scientific history to life. For example, characters discuss Williams’ far-reaching and (at the time) unorthodox decision to publish the Hubble Deep Field’s data openly and immediately. Small institutions and beginning astronomers suddenly had the same level of access as larger, more established researchers. The release allowed a greater number of astronomers to work with the data simultaneously, leading to many quick discoveries and changing the culture of how astronomy projects operate.
If you were to look up at the Hubble Deep Field, it would only cover the size of a pinhead held at arm’s length, or around one-thirteenth the diameter of the moon. Yet, NASA found about 3,000 galaxies in that small sliver of space. Most were so faint that they had never been observed before.
As the universe expands, distant objects recede faster from the Earth and appear redder — the titular “redshift” referenced in Hardenbergh’s play. The universe is estimated to be around 13.8 billion years old; subsequent Hubble surveys found objects in the Hubble Deep Field region that are as old as 13.4 billion years.
PLANETARIUM DIRECTOR JOHN HALEY (LEFT) AND CHALMERS HARDENBERGH (RIGHT) AT THE PLANETARIUM'S CONSOLE.
Photo courtesy of Chalmers Hardenbergh
Space’s immense size and age brings up existential questions, which REDshift’s characters grapple with, after peering so far into the past. The play may be grounded in science, but it’s very much about the human condition as well.
Hardenbergh hopes to put on additional performances. He’s talking to a few venues in Maine, and he even self-published a book version of the play. Motivated by his work with Hardenbergh on REDshift, Williams is nearing completion of his own play. It will cover NASA’s search for life.
