I actually ended up reading Radium Girls by D.W. Gregory because I chose to do a scene for it for my theatre class. It’s a wonderful play and I suggest that anyone should watch it or read it. I’ve seen a lot of performances of it online so if you’re looking to watch it instead of reading, it’s really easy to find performances of it online. Since I read it for my theatre class, I was very focused when reading and looking for the smallest details. Since I had to put a scene on for it, I analyzed every scene and really pictured them in my head and that helped me to connect a lot with the story and the characters. I know that a lot of other people won’t be reading this to choose a scene, so it would be really easy just to read and then watch a performance. It’s also a lot of fun to see how other people interpret some things and it really helps to expand your understanding of the story.
Radium Girls is a play based on the true story of the girls who worked at radium plants in the 1920s in New Jersey. These girls would paint watched dials with radium every day and they were suggested by their supervisors that to have more finely painted watches, the girls should dip their brushes in paint and then put it in their mouth to smooth the bristles down. This resulted in a lot of the girls getting radium poisoning and most factory workers died from it. At the time, people didn’t know that radium itself was the reason behind the girls getting sick, radium was called the miracle cure of the time and many people refused to see how it could be killing these girls. The story mainly follows Grace Fryer, a girl who started dial painting when she was a young girl. The story is of Grace’s life from when she was young to later in life. Following Grace as her friends get sick and some die and with her developing a mysterious “toothache” of her own. Grace fights with other girls in court against the U.S. Radium Corporation as well as with her friends and family.
One of my favorite things about this play is how emotional and personal it gets with each of the characters. I loved following these girls and their fight for justice. Their story is an interesting one and the way D.W. Gregory writes it is amazing, I couldn’t have asked for a more thrilling play on the Radium Girls. I suggest anyone read it, especially if you’re into historical dramas! A lot of people enjoyed the scene that I chose for my theatre class and some people even admitted that it made them cry. With these reactions from such a diverse set of people, I think that really anyone would be into this story. I highly suggest that you read this play. And if you don’t want to read it, you can even watch it!
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