This is community theatre at its best. The Lane Cove Theatre has selected a complex play and succeeded in presenting this dramatisation of a true story. The ‘radium girls’ were 1920s workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting watch dials and hands with radium paint. This was to make the watches luminous, so to be seen in the dark. The girls were told the paint was harmless and to ‘point’ the tips of the tiny brushes with their lips.
The playwright is the contemporary American D.W. Gregory. Her play has received numerous awards. It is historically accurate, celebrating the courage of the girls who died of poisoning – even as the factory owners knew the paint was poisonous but were in denial.
RADIUM GIRLS is much more than a documented account of the girls’ deaths, the court cases, the press coverage and the settlement process. There is both dark comedy and tragedy linked together. There is the obsession with wealth, the commercialisation of science and the power of the press.
There are 30 characters played by 10 actors – mothers, boyfriends, co-workers, attorneys, scientists, journalists, advocates and the corrupt businessmen who deny any responsibility and pay off expert witnesses. There are quick changes of scenes and locations. There is compassion and cruelty. What a play!
WOMEN are the heroes – the director Kathy Petrakis who selected the play, the playwright, the girls who stood up to the bosses, the lawyer who managed their case, the advocate who sponsored the case and the girls who were poisoned.
The key character is Grace Fryer. She refused the first settlement offer, wanting her day in court. Played skilfully by Thea Ward, Grace morphs from a happy young girl into the dying woman. All the other actors played multiple roles neatly and successfully.
Full marks for the crew. The four back-lit posters change images to represent the many settings. That technique worked brilliantly as the screens created the garden, factory, kitchen and lastly, the graveyard. The 1920s costumes were just marvellous –the gloves, hats and the attention to small details. The selection of the music was appropriate to each scene and lightened the mood, keeping the tragedy from becoming too overpowering. The theatre space is a church hall with raked seating, good acoustics and a basic lighting grid. All in all, a good venue.
RADIUM GIRLS is a play that makes you rush home to search the Net. The girls in the play, eventually settled and the bosses were off the hook. There were other factories where the girls brought cases – and won. That’s the good news. The bad news is that there are always businesses, corporates and the Australian Navy that shirk responsibility silicosis, mesothelioma, polyfluoroalkyl at Wreck Bay. And so it goes.
Lane Cove Theatre Company’s production of D.W.Gregory’s RADIUM GIRLS is playing the Performance Space @ Sy Aidan’s in Longueville until the 25th August 2024.
http://www.lanecovetheatrecompany.com.au
