A searing and heartbreaking drama based on true events about the 1920s, when young women were poisoned by radium while painting luminous watch dials.
Radium Girls runs from November 5 to 8 at the Civic Theatre in Newcastle, playing in the Playhouse. It's a Civic Assets production, and it's one of the shows Hunter Drama has on its bill for the season.
The play is based on true events from the 1920s, when hundreds of young women worked in factories painting luminous watch dials with glow-in-the-dark radium. They did it without knowing the paint was killing them. When their bodies began to fall apart, they were met with silence, denial and a powerful company determined to protect its reputation. It's described as a searing and heartbreaking drama about courage in the face of corporate greed.
It's a co-production between Knock And Run Theatre and The Actors Company, directed by James Chapman and Patrick Campbell, and devised by D.W. Gregory. The story is a piece of history that's easy to forget until you hear it told like this — the radium girls were real people, not just a footnote in a textbook, and the play keeps that human cost at the centre.
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With the run starting on November 5 and going through to the 8th, there are four nights to choose from. It's in the Playhouse at the Civic Theatre, so you'll be right in the heart of Newcastle for it.
