Acacia Theatre’s ‘Shining’ Examples

These Shining Lives tells a story from a century ago, a case that helped set guardrails for the workplace safety we count on today.

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Theater

These Shining Lives tells a story from a century ago, a case that helped set guardrails for the workplace safety we count on today. Melanie Marnich’s play concerns four women from the Radium Dial Company who sued in court, their health damaged by handling radioactive materials. Hovering over the drama is a larger, eternal issue: the pursuit of truth.

The play will be produced next month by Acacia Theatre, directed by Janet Bouman Peterson. “Backstories are perhaps fictitious, but the play is based on actual happenings,” she says. In These Shining Lives, the women work at a factory in Ottawa, IL, manufacturing irradiated glow-in-the-dark watches and clocks. They were good paying jobs, but the women began to suffer from intense pain and something strange: their hands glowed in the dark. “What happened to them, as a result of radium, helped to establish safety measures for dealing with atomic energy,” Peterson continues. 

Ottawa, IL wasn’t the only site where factories produced novel, glow-in-the-dark consumer goods without considering the consequences for their workers of radium exposure. Another legal action against a rival company in New Jersey inspired another play, D.W. Gregory’s Radium Girls. Kate Moore drew from both cases for her New York Times bestselling history, The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women.

Focus on Characters

These Shining Lives dramatizes the crucial themes. “For those of us who have read that book, we need to let go of the precise facts,” Peterson says. “And instead, focus on the characters, the women, the backdrop of this workplace harm and court cases, and not the precise and exact timelines of what happened to everyone when.”

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The Illinois women who took their case to the authorities were faced with two obstacles. One was widespread ignorance of radiation and the other, at least as important, was economic. “An interesting fact is that a lot of this came out during the Depression when Radium Dial Company was one of the only businesses providing work,” Peterson explains. “No one wanted it to close down. So they [the women] weren’t supported at the time. Took quite a while for that attitude to change.”

Acacia is mounting the play with a stripped-down cast of four women— Frances (Maura Cook), Charlotte (Shannon Nettesheim Klein), Pearl (Olivia Najera) and the central protagonist, Catherine (Bekah Rose), plus their attorney, Tom Donohue (Zion Nelson) and their boss, Mr. Reed (Mark Neufang). Says Peterson, “Several are returning actors and have worked together before, and several are new. After one week of rehearsal, I can tell these people are going to work together beautifully.” The play will be staged with a radio, furnishings and costumes to suggest the 1920s and ‘30s.

Sources of Truth?

Why did Acacia choose to program These Shining Lives? “Our season theme this year is ‘Truth’ and this play deals a lot with truth or lack thereof. How do people deal with the truth if it is inconvenient, or affects the bottom line, or you don’t want to have to face it, or admit you're wrong?” Peterson explains.

“I see how this can apply to today perhaps even more than when I first read it,” she continues. “What are our sources for “truth.” Do we believe everything we get from social media, from our siloed and confirmation bias news sources? Can we allow ourselves to go beyond what we want to be the truth when confronted with it?

“Additionally, I think we can learn a lot from the women at the center of the story and those who believe and care for them. There is hope and love in community when we show up in support,” Peterson concludes.

Acacia Theatre presents These Shining Lives, March 6-22 at The Norvell Commons at St. Christopher's Church 7845 N. River Road. For tickets, visit acaciatheatre.com