The Roaring 20s was a time of rapid cultural change, optimism, and economic prosperity. But what happens when young women working in factories start mysteriously dying from an unknown illness? This is the plot of Liberty’s fall play, “Radium Girls.”
The production follows the story of Grace Fryer, played by Clara Hibbard, 12. She is a young woman living in the 1920s, who works at a factory painting dials on watches using luminescent, radioactive paint. These watches were a sought-after item until the girls who painted those watches started to fall ill with a mysterious illness.
Inspired by a true story, Grace Fryer fights for her rights in court, as well as her life. She battles not only the U.S. Radium Company but also
her own family and friends, who fear that her campaign for justice will backfire. Through this powerful story, the audience watches a woman slowly start to lose herself as a result of the cruelty of corporate America.
As the story progresses, audience members are left questioning different characters’ motives and who the real villain of the story is. In the end, they realize there is no singular villain.
While the play only lasted a couple of hours, hundreds of hours were put in behind the scenes to make this show a success.
“On average, the crew as a whole probably puts in around 4 to 5 hours a week. During tech week, that number jumps to around 15-20 hours a week,” said Eden Scherrer. Scherrer is the stage manager for this production and played a critical role in helping this play come to life. They shared some of the struggles that came along with building the set for this production.
Scherrer continues, “Every step of the process has its downfalls and there are so many little ways that things can go wrong.”
With a stunning set, the play was undoubtedly set up to succeed. However, this couldn’t have been done without the talented actors who made up the cast list for this production.
Lukas Acas, 11, is an actor in the production. He reflects on his time in the Liberty Theater Department and the show itself, “I love all these people with my whole heart…”
Watching this play, it is apparent the amount of time and effort put into it. The Liberty Lightning Theater Department continues to go above and beyond bringing the performing arts to Liberty.
While ‘Radium Girls’ has concluded, there will be future productions to check out later this year, so stay tuned!
