The Black Box Theatre’s co-founder, Lora Adams, once again scores a ten out of ten on the theatre Richter Scale directing the outstanding performance of Lauren Gunderson’s The Half-Life of Marie Curie which specifically centers on the enduring friendship of Nobel Laureate in both Physics and Chemistry, Marie Curie, and the lesser known but no less gifted electromagnetic engineer, mathematician, and suffragette, Hertha Ayrton. On a broader scale, it’s a testament to the unique depth and strength of female friendships everywhere.
If you, like me, love theatre that not only entertains but enlightens this show is definitely for you...and my supplemental research to prepare this review was fascinating. Sadly, I don’t have time to share most of it.
We all pretty much know about Curie’s work leading to the Nobel prizes, but did you also know she developed portable x-ray machines mounted in trucks to assist World War I doctors to more accurately diagnose injured soldiers and likely saving a million soldiers lives? She even drove one of the trucks herself along with her daughter. Ayrton, in addition to inventing the arc light which partly resulted in her winning the prestigious Hughes Award from the London Royal Society also invented a personally operated fan to clear poison gas out of the WWI trenches, also saving an untold number of lives.
Half-Life focuses on the specific time period about 6 years after Pierre Curie has died. Marie, lonely and struggling, begins an affair with the married Paul Langevin. The media vilifies her going so far as to call her the “foreign Jewish temptress homewrecker.” Her life begins to crumble down around her. Even upon winning the Nobel in Chemistry the committee requests she not attend the awards ceremony. Enter Hertha Ayrton who insists Marie will get past the scandal and invites her to ride it out at her English seaside home. It’s a provocative story told by a master writer and it will arouse you in multiple ways.
Faced with losing everything Curie expresses her dismay as: “You see, radiation is the process by which an element changes itself entirely. As it radiates, Radium decays to Radon which decays to Polonium which decays to Lead, all of these metals shedding themselves to the point of abandonment...Half-life. The moment an element transforms so fully that it is more other than self...that’s what we call it. Half...life.” Her dedication to her work lead to her death from aplastic anemia...and to her burial in a lead coffin...her remains – and her notebooks – will continue to be radioactive for another 1,500 years.
Creating the magic onstage are Jessica White as Curie and Pam Mautz Cantrell as Ayrton. In a dialog driven two person show like this there has to be Nobel quality chemistry and complete trust in each other and these women are prize winners all around. White imbues Curie with aching despair over the loss of everything she’s worked for and Cantrell packs feisty determination into helping her friend weather the tempest. This extraordinary and exceptional duo delivers a powerful performance you don’t want to miss.
The Half Life of Marie Curie continues at The Black Box Theatre, 1623 5th Avenue in Moline, Friday and Saturday, September 26 and 27 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, September 28 at 2:00 p.m.
I’m Chris Hicks…break a leg.