Ardmore Little Theatre’s newest production, “Radium Girls” opened last night with performances running through Sunday.
While their last show was the lighthearted, colorful and cheerful musical “The Wizard of Oz,” “Radium Girls” could easily be considered the opposite of that. Here ALT shows off their versatility by presenting a serious and somber examination of historical events.
The play is based on the true story of a group of female factory workers in the 1920s who were poisoned and killed by the radium-based paint used in their factory. At the beginning of the show, we see the women as they paint the numbers on clockfaces at the U.S Radium Plant. Because this requires fine attention to detail, the women are instructed by the factory to keep their brushes pointy by running the bristles across their lips.
They soon begin noticing mysterious health issues. As the women get progressively sicker and some die, plant management denies any liability. As the story continues, the plant becomes increasingly desperate to prevent the women from speaking to the media, save their own reputation, and delay any related court cases.
Obviously, this is a very serious story, and the large ensemble cast does an excellent job of telling the story respectfully. Many of the individual scenes are relatively short and a minimalist set design allows the actors to quickly move from one scene to the next.
Within the greater ensemble, there are two main characters who drive the narrative: Factory Worker Grace played by Casey Jones and U.S. Radium Plant President Mr. Roeder played by Brent Holland.
Jones does an excellent job of depicting Grace’s strength as she battles the company for compensation. This job is all the more difficult as her character’s friends die, her own illness progresses and her family faces increasing financial difficulty. Jones manages to balance all of these.
Holland also gives an amazing performance as Mr. Roeder. While it would be easy to make the character into the portrait of moustache-twirling villainy, that’s not the way the character is written and it’s not the performance Holland gives. Make no mistake, he’s definitely one of the bad guys, but you can see the inner conflict within the character as he struggles between supporting the company at all costs or doing what he knows to be the right thing.
Performances of “Radium Girls” will be at the Goddard Center this Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Attendees will also want to take some time either before or after the show to examine the photographs and articles about the real radium girls on display in the lobby. Tickets are $12 for adults and $8 for students and can be purchased online at ardmorelittletheater.com.
