On Nov 20, 2022, I attended the SHS play entitled “Radium Girls.” My friend and I were excited to watch our classmates perform and express themselves in a creative platform.

For some background, this play was originally created by a man named D.W. Gregory. “Radium Girls” is based on a true incident during World War I many groups of women were lucky enough to earn a well paid job of painting military dials with a material that contains radium.

Radium is a highly radioactive element that could cause immediate danger if consumed. When painting, the women working were told to lick the tip of their brush to make the tip finer and more precise, creating better designs on the dials. Because of the constant licking, the majority of the workers began to feel immensely ill because of the internal contamination from the radium.

In an NPR interview, Author Deborah Blum of The Poisoner’s Handbook revealed another serious result of the radium consumption, “’There was one woman who the dentist went to pull a tooth and he pulled her entire jaw out when he did it,’ says Blum. ‘Their legs broke underneath them. Their spines collapsed.’”

Now, about the play, the acting was held upon stage as expected, but so was the audience. The audience had a close up experience of the play, and I found that I began to feel more emotion towards the actors because I was right beside them. This is something that I found immensely unique and made me enjoy it even more.

Not only was the setting intriguing, but so were the actors. SHS drama director Kris Ferencie did a phenomenal job teaching the students how to express their character and emotions on stage. I was on the edge of my seat trying to see what would happen next. The emotion many of the actors and actresses presented was extremely touching and made me think that we were really back in the early 1920s.

The costumes included fedoras, floral dresses, bobbed hairstyles and many other fitting styles. One of my favorite props presented on stage was the graveyard created by the SHS Drama Crew Staff for the women who have passed away from radium poisoning. It was nicely built and designed to please the eye. The use of doorbell sounds and knocking created a more realistic viewpoint of the play, bringing the setting of a play to life.

Overall, I found this play extremely enjoyable. If I will be completely honest, I thought that the school play would be underwhelming and on the mundane side. But, not only did it exceed my expectations, it also made me want to go to more plays in the future. The SHS Drama Club plays should not be something to miss, they should be something to talk about.

Make sure to stay tuned in with the SHS Drama Page and check out the spring musical.