But because of the era she lived in, working with singular focus and meticulous skill in a field dominated by men, she paid a price. Rosalind Franklin should be a household name – she was a key contributor to one of the greatest discoveries of modern times. And particularly the forgotten stories of women who have changed our world.

Threatened by her brilliance, Rosalind’s rivals at King's College London scandalously stole her research and were awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering the double helix. In 1952, Rosalind Franklin used X-ray diffraction photography to examine the intricate structure of DNA, but her trail-blazing work was never recognised. Opening on Thursday 7 November at Arts Centre Melbourne, Pamela Rabe directs this moving portrait of brilliant British scientist Rosalind Franklin, who battled sexism and isolation in the race to capture the ‘secret of life’. Tóibín’s tour de force of imagination and language is a portrait so vivid and convincing that our image of Mary will be forever transformed.Nadine Garner ( The Blake Mysteries) stars alongside Gig Clarke ( The Code), Nicholas Denton ( Wild), Paul Goddard ( Pulse), Yalin Ozucelik ( Othello) and Dan Spielman ( Macbeth) in the Australian premiere of Anna Ziegler’s Photograph 51, a delicate exploration of sacrifice in the pursuit of science, love and a place in history. This woman whom we know from centuries of paintings and scripture as the docile, loving, silent, long-suffering, obedient, worshipful mother of Christ becomes a tragic heroine with the relentless eloquence of Electra or Medea or Antigone.

Mary judges herself ruthlessly (she did not stay at the foot of the Cross until her son died-she fled, to save herself), and her judgment of others is equally harsh.

She does not agree that her son is the Son of God nor that his death was “worth it” nor that the “group of misfits he gathered around him, men who could not look a woman in the eye,” were holy disciples. They are her keepers, providing her with food and shelter and visiting her regularly. She has no interest in collaborating with the authors of the Gospel. In the ancient town of Ephesus, Mary lives alone, years after her son’s crucifixion. PROVOCATIVE, HAUNTING AND INDELIBLE, Colm Tóibín’s portrait of Mary presents her as a solitary older woman still seeking to understand the events that become the narrative of the New Testament and the foundation of Christianity.

The testament of mary pamela rabe