Time ran out for the courageous women who
painted clock faces for the Radium Dial Company during the ‘20s and ‘30s, not
knowing what their bosses knew: That radium poisoning was slowly killing them.
Stoneham Theatre is currently presenting Melanie Marnich’s tragic drama about
those very real women, called THOSE SHINING LIVES, through June 23rd.
Director Caitlin Lowans has assembled a stellar
cast to honor them but alas, the first act runs awfully slow in setting up the
relationship of the four women who bond over their deadly, iridescent work.
Marnich’s play ticks along in hushed, subdued reverence, only breaking out of
its somber tone in Act II when the husband of the principal character (the only
husband or family we meet, curiously) gets to vent his anger toward their boss.
The playwright chooses to let the women’s lawsuit (which changed workplace
history) scream for them but it would have been satisfying to hear some
righteous outrage in the play from the women themselves.
McCaela Donovan and Joe Short (who were
dynamite together in Bridge Rep’s THE LOVER earlier this year) sweetly portray
the innocent, hardworking couple whose lives are ruined by corporate criminals,
with Short delivering the best line in the play, sending the fear of God into
the company boss (Allan Mayo). Kathryn Myles is refreshing as Donovan’s mouthy co-worker
and Melis Aker and Dakota Shepard are lovely as the other two unwitting dial
painters. I wish we could have had more information about their lives away from
work. That might have given the story more depth. All I could think of at
play’s end was W.H. Auden’s poem about death and loss: STOP ALL THE CLOCKS.
