These Shining Lives
The opening lines of These Shining Lives, Melanie Marnich’s engrossing play, are, “This isn’t a fairy tale, although it starts like one. It’s not a tragedy, though it ends like one.”
The lines are not a spoiler alert. The “shining” of the title is radium, the glow-in-the-dark radioactive material used to paint numbers on watch faces in the early 20th century, and watching face-painters moisten brushes by inserting them in their mouths is chilling from the get-go. We know where this story is going, but, as always, excellence is in the details.
More than a thousand “ordinary girls” in the 1920s joined the Radium Dial Company in Ottawa, Illinois. There, they earned eight cents per face for painting on numbers. Some painted more than 100 a day and stayed for more than a decade.
As These Shining Lives opens, Catherine (Abigail Stewart) is joining the firm, nervous that she’ll be good enough. She and her husband Tom (Isaac Jay) have twins and need the extra income. Her boss Mr. Reed (John Colella) introduces her to the other “girls”: Pearl (Allison Schlicher), Frances (Shannon Woo) and Charlotte (Jessica Woehler). Each are well-drawn, well-acted, and well-clothed in period-looking dresses.
The incentive is financial, and friendly competition among the workers keeps everyone achieving at a high level, while becoming close. The audience grows to care as much about them as they do about each other.
Michael Kachingwe appears in five different roles, building audience affection each time. Joel David is responsible for the understated scenic design, Jeffrey Schoenberg for the pitch-perfect costumes.
Thom Babbes directs this true story of “the Radium Girls” with a light touch. The fact that this is a true story with ramifications and lessons still reverberating a hundred years later ups the stakes. But both director and playwright find the humanity and humor in what could be melodramatic material. This is a lovely and moving show.
These Shining Lives runs through March 30 at the Actors Co-op’s Crossley Theatre, 1760 N. Gower Street, on the campus of First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm, Sundays at 2:30pm.There are Saturday matinees March 1 and March 15 at 2:30pm. Tickets are $32 and can be purchased here. Free parking is available at a lot across from the complex.
Laura Foti Cohen
Laura Foti Cohen has been reviewing theatre prolifically for five years at the Larchmont Buzz, a local Hancock Park-area website and email newsletter. She’s a playwright herself; her plays have been produced by NEO Ensemble Theatre. She's a new member of Theatre West.
