Clague Playhouse’s ‘The Half-Life of Marie Curie’ glows

Maria Salomea Sklodowska-Curie was better known simply as Marie Curie. She was born in Poland who after her marriage in 1895 to Pierre Curie became a naturalized French citizen. With her husband they conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She shared a Nobel Prize in Physics with her husband in 1903. In 1906 she became the first female professor at the University of Paris. She and Pierre also coined the word “radioactivity”. Tragically, Pierre was killed in 1906 as the result of a street accident involving a wagon. In 1911 Marie won her second Nobel Prize for chemistry with her discovery of polonium (named after her native country) and radium.

This was also the year that it was revealed that Marie was involved in a year-long affair with physicist Paul Langevin (a former student of Pierre Currie). Even though Langevin was estranged from his wife, the scandal (encouraged by her academic opponents) turned the world against her. She was described in the tabloids as a foreign Jewish home-wrecker and soon an angry mob assembled outside her home as she returned from a conference in Belgium.

This is where the play “The Half-Life of Marie Curie” by Lauren Gunderson begins. Marie Curie (Jess Antrobus) is constantly hounded by the press and mob and her two children are so fearful they have stopped attending school. This is when her good friend Hertha Ayrton (Carrie Williams) an electromechanical engineer (who developed the silent light bulb) descends on the Curie household like a force of nature. Fighting her way past the mob she soon takes stock of the situation and convinces Marie to leave France and join her at her summer home that overlooks the English Channel.

Being widowed as well and an outspoken advocate for the suffrage movement (Hertha and her daughter were both jailed at times), Ayrton welcomes the three distraught travelers of the Curie family and like a mother hen works to bring happiness back into their lives far away from the distraction of the French press and mobs. Hertha even convinces Marie to attend the Nobel Prize ceremony (where she had been requested not to attend).

With the start of World War I Marie decides to help in the war effort by designing (with Ayrton’s help) mobile x-ray units (in converted ambulances) that were powered by the truck’s engine. To do so she did a quick study of radiology, anatomy and automotive mechanics. Marie then set out with the assistance of a military doctor and her 18 year old daughter with their “petites Curies” (“Little Curies”) of 20 mobile radiological vehicles and 200 radiological units for the field hospitals later training other women as aides. As a result over one million soldiers were treated using her x-ray units during the war.

While the huge shadow of the Curies fame covers and in part obscures Marie’s life, this story is one of true friendship between two brilliant women who have respect for each other’s achievements as well as an understanding of the pitfalls of fame or lack thereof. It is refreshing to view a work based on female companionship without a sexual content. They are quite simply just best friends who care for one another.

Carrie Williams as Hertha Ayrton is a force to be reckoned with. She bursts on the stage in an explosion of almighty energy that carries through all the way to the end. Jess Antrobus as Marie Curie has mastered the accent as well as the gestures needed to sell the part to the audience. Together they form a united front to face a condemning world. All the while they do so with a lighthearted humor that is genuine.

The production is masterly directed by Anne McEvoy who brings a nice balance of humor, sadness, chaos, tragedy and heart in an easy to digest ninety minute (without intermission) fast moving historical novel. The stage set by Ron Newell is brilliant with the use of a sliding stage that quickly changes from Marie’s parlor, to Hertha’s coastal house to an English beach. The lighting by Lance Switzer and sound design by Lisa L. Wiley works well to set the various moods. Candace Lipton does a terrific job in costume design with period appropriate garb. Dreb Geib outfits the stage with loads of nik-knacks that are a joy to discover.

This is a show about friendship...nothing more and nothing less. Forget it is about two brilliant women who helped shape the world. Instead, it focuses on their comradery and their lives as women fighting against the wrongs that still face women over one hundred years later. This show is a frisky feminist crowd pleaser.

The Clague Playhouse production of “The Half-Life of Marie Curie” by Lauren Gunderson will be on stage at 1371 Clague Road in Westlake, Ohio through April 17, 2025. For more information and tickets go to http://www.clagueplayhouse.org or call (440) 331-0403.