Their job was to paint watches with luminous radioactive paint so soldiers could see them in the dark.
The dial painters were all women, working in factories in the U.S. in the 1920s. No one knew, at the time, that radium caused cancer. The women would put the paint brush in their mouths to bring the bristles to a point before painting, causing cancer in their faces.
The L.V. Rogers drama class will present Radium Girls by D.W. Gregory at the Capitol Theatre this weekend. The play looks at the lives and deaths of three women in one of the factories and their court battle against the U.S. Radium Corporation.
Amelia Ford plays one of the women. She says that despite the tragic aspects of the role, she is inspired by it.
“They had to fight for their lives, they were dying,” she says. “At the beginning of the play they are docile, they do what the men tell them to do. It shows these women defying all odds and saying no.”
Ford says playing a historical figure meant a lot to her.
“It is a true story. You have to understand and respect what happened to these women and play them properly and understand the illness they had no idea they were getting. They were betrayed by the company.”
LVR drama instructor Robyn Sheppard, who directs the production, says the historical aspect was the reason she chose Radium Girls. She says playing a historical character is different from portraying a fictional one.
“It is profound when you know for sure that someone lived it. I talk about the integrity of the acting: you owe it to the actual woman, the integrity of her life.
“When I chose this piece, many of them said, oh it is so sad, they die, they get cancer. But I really wanted to instill in them that in some ways it is a positive play in that even though the girls do die (although we do not actually see the deaths in the play), they become self actualized and they have a voice. It parallels the Suffragette movement, and the post-war period where women were changing their style and getting out in the world and speaking up about important issues. And this case really was quite instrumental in improving workers’ rights.”
Liam Dignam plays the corporate boss who at first denies there was a problem.
“A key thing about playing the role,” he says, “is that no one ever thinks they are evil, no one thinks they are doing a bad thing. People did not know radium could kill people.”
When it becomes clear that the company is actually poisoning its employees, his character’s first thought is, “Wait a minute, we are making so much money, we are doing so well for ourselves here, we can’t just throw all that away.”
But eventually his acting challenge is to portray remorse and guilt.
“He changes a lot throughout the play,” Dignam says about his character. “He starts as a cheerful, confident happy person because everything is going well for him. But he definitely gets more cold and resentful because public opinion has completely changed. Even the opinion of his family and friends has completely changed. It takes its toll on him.”
Radium Girls plays Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Capitol Theatre, with tickets available at the Capitol box office.
