Radium Girls

After being in rehearsal and postponed in 2020, Centenary’s production of Radium Girls is finally on the boards. Written by female playwright D.W. Gregory, it’s another in those stories of the ‘little man’ (although in this case a girl) and their fight for justice against corporate America, personified by the movie Erin Brockovich, with a touch of Norma Rae thrown in.

Set in the 1920s, it follows a group of girls who are employed by the U.S. Radium Corporation in Orange, New Jersey, painting watch dials with self-luminous paint. They repeatedly twirl the brushes between their lips, unaware of the fatal consequences. In due course they will all die of radium poisoning. It was a major sensational story at the time, with the company denying culpability and delaying the court suits as long as possible, which meant by the time the cases came to court, the plaintiffs were either dead or too sick to receive any benefit.

Gregory’s play focuses on the personal stories and in particular Grace Fryer, who began working at the factory as a fifteen-year-old. Grace and president of the company, Arthur Roeder, are the only two characters played throughout by the same actors, the rest of the cast of ten playing a multitude of roles, with minor dress changes, on a set that keeps being reconfigured with tables and chairs, against an audio-visual background that includes watch dials.

The director Jason Nash is responsible for the excellent audio-visual work which adds a further dimension to the production. Amy Westman’s performance as Grace begins with innocence and vulnerability, slowly building to a powerful strength as her illness becomes worse and her fight becomes more determined.

Cameron Gaffney plays Roeder’s ambiguous character well. Coming from a religious background, he’s torn between his conscience and wanting to do the right thing, but aware of his business and how devastating a lawsuit will be for it, erring on the corporate side.

The young romance between Grace and Tom (Jayd Kafoa) was honest and believable, and in another of his roles, Kafoa was a bright light as a newspaper reporter. Paula White also impressed as a female scribe, the radium plant’s supervisor, and as Grace’s careworn mother. Kristina Redwood’s best moment was as a sick and dying factory girl, Max Phythian’s as a shallow corporate hack, whilst old-stager Gary Kliger chewed the scenery on screen as an elderly widow. Rounding out the large cast were Kate Rhodes (Irene & others), Mike Civitano (Berry & others), and Dani Dickinson who turned up as Madam Curie whose scientific work led to the radium craze that fueled the company’s rise.

Radium Girls has mostly been produced in regional America and, as such, has found sympathetic audiences for this historically accurate and horrific expose. Australia is not short of its corporate bullies and work-related illnesses (asbestos and coal etc), so the tale is very relatable. Kudos to director Nash and the Centenary team for shining a light on this injustice.

Peter Pinne