Among history’s Polish names of leaders and achievers, Madame Marie Curie, the Polish-French physicist and chemist, is a clear favorite from my classroom history days.
However, I’ve somehow never heard of her close friend and counterpart of great inventions and discoveries, Hertha Aryton, also of Polish roots.
Audiences and I have an opportunity to learn more about both of these great innovators this month as a stage prelude to welcome March, designated as “Women’s History Month.”
An intimate examination of the bond shared between these two leading females of scientific and engineering discovery is the subject of Chicago Street Theatre’s new production “The Half Life of Marie Curie,” with a run Feb. 13 through March 1 on the main stage space at 154 W. Chicago St. in Valparaiso.
Written by Lauren Gunderson and first performed in 2019 at the Minletta Lane Theatre in New York, “The Half-Life of Marie Curie” is told as a biographical tale that begins in 1912 during the turbulent time in Marie Curie’s career after the scandal leaked of her affair with her colleague, the married French physicist Paul Langevin, all of which unfold shortly following her second Nobel Prize award.
This was a scandal that put her reputation and achievements at risk while under public scrutiny and was a catalyst for Curie to retreat to the seaside cottage of close friend and fellow celebrated physicist Hertha Aryton. The play invites audiences to gain perspective and absorb little-known details as the two discuss many aspects of their lives and careers.
The two roles are being played by veteran actresses of the Chicago Street Theatre stage, Barb Baker Malangoni as Marie Curie and Lisa Formosa-Parmigiano as Hertha Aryton.
Malangoni admits, like so many of us, she knew little about Curie before reading the play, other than her discovery of radium. She said the playwright provides audiences with a depiction of Curie as a mother, wife and friend besides being a Nobel Prize-winning scientist.
Formosa-Parmigiano, who is also the artistic and education director at CST in addition to performing in shows like “LEAR” and “Rosemary and Ginger,” said though her character is lesser known than Curie, she hopes audiences learn more about the genius hailed as “the woman who tamed lightning.”
Allison Granat is directing the run with assistant director Theresa Haus.
The theatre lobby will share the deeper details and further fascinating stories of Curie and Aryton with factoids about their lives and work and a recreation of their workspace, including artwork inspired by original posters depicting Curie’s radium discovery that were culturally popular at the time.
Arython died in 1923 at age 69, the result of an infected insect bite causing blood poisoning. Curie died at age 66 in 1934 of radium poisoning as a result of her research. Her famous last words were in the form of a question, serving as evidence she was a researching scientist right until her last breath of life: “Was it [her poisoning] done with radium or with mesothorium?”
The nine performances of “The Half-Life of Marie Curie” are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $25 for adults and $22 for seniors and military at www.chicagostreet.org or 219-464-1636.
Ready for auditions
The Indiana University Northwest Theatre Department has started auditions this week for their new production run of “Defying Gravity,” a play inspired by the 1986 Challenger space shuttle explosion and “exploring the dangers, limits, glories and consequences of human achievement.” The play run is April 9 through 12 on campus at the IUN Blackbox Theatre. Tom Mackey is directing and he can be reached at tomdirectsplays@gmail.com to schedule an audience. Roles include as a mother, an astronaut in training, a 5-year-old portrayed by an adult, a painter, a NASA mechanic, a bartender and a retired couple in their 60s. The play was written by Jane Anderson, first premiered in 1997 in New York City and is licensed by Concord Theatricals and Samuel French Inc. Visit northwest.iu.edu/theatre/ for more details.
Philip Potempa is a journalist, published author and weekly radio host on WJOB 1230 AM. He can be reached at philpotempa@gmail.com.
