Paintbrushes, clocks, and disease. These seemingly mismatched subjects combined this past weekend at the Region 10 Players theater production of “Radium Girls” at Lewis Mills. The show journeys through the story of the radium girls, who painted radium onto Timex watches in the 1920s and 30s. Not only did these women paint and interact with radium, the deadly element, on a daily basis, but they were instructed by their bosses to lick the radium-paint brushes in order to get a more fine-point. This may seem like an interesting idea for a play, but it is based on real life. The most famous places where there were radium girls in real life are Illinois and New Jersey. However, just a few towns over, in the city of Waterbury, many young girls suffered the same fate working at the Waterbury Clock Company, which later became Timex.
Not only did the young women and teens ingest the radium, but due to its glowing-quality they began to use it for their own recreational purposes, according to Britannica.com. The women would purposefully put the paint on their teeth and clothing so that when they went out, they could shine as bright as the watches they painted. Then suddenly, the ramifications of their actions began to set in, and quick. Most of these women began to suffer horrific consequences in the 1930s and many died of rare and debilitating diseases.
But Mae Keane defied the odds many of her radium sisters faced. Despite her life being filled with disease, Mae Keane lived until she was 107. After the loss of all her teeth in her 30s and battling two types of cancer, she kept on fighting until the end in 2014. The reason why she may have been exempt from an early death could have been her lack of time at the Waterbury Clock Company. According to the New Haven Register, Mae was hired at 19 for a summer position at the company with a simple pay of 8 cents per watch-face. The girls were told that in order to paint faster they should lick their brushes, but Mae refused this suggestion since she didn’t like the taste of the radium. She was soon fired due to her lack of productivity. However, after being exposed to radium for just a few months she was cursed with a lifetime of health problems.
Now, these women’s stories live on through the stage, and will be showcased this weekend in the Region 10 Players production of the play. The original production debuted in 2000, in New Jersey, and has since been staged across the country and internationally. In 2014, the Waterbury-based theater company, Shakesperience, staged an early production of the show, just blocks from where the real radium girls once unknowingly consumed their poison. For Emily Mattina, artistic director of the Brass City-based company, it was a gratifying experience to bring these stories to new audiences while honoring the local history. Not only did Mattina successfully put on four showings, but Keane, the oldest surviving radium girl at the time attended the first night of the production at 106 years old. Keane’s family, many of whom lived in and around the area, also attended subsequent nights of the run.
One thing that Mattina kept in mind during the production was that this was a nuanced tragedy, not black and white. She shared a moment in the play that stuck out to her the most, recounting: “My favorite scene in the play is the last scene, and the daughter of the guy who ran the corporation and the factory is visiting the grave of one of the girls, years after the fact, and his daughter comes up and says ‘Oh dad why are you doing this again, you didn’t know… now science and medicine has changed so much we know what is good and what is bad for us.’ And she is smoking a cigarette.”
In this case art does reflect reality. Or it simply shines a light on our past. Over and over again, this performance reminds audiences of both the grisly labor conditions and how oblivious or unconcerned society was with potential dangers and consequences of everyday industrial work. While the play serves as a reminder of the past, it also offers a warning for our future; Just as the radium girls once feasted upon a toxin as part of their daily routine, who knows what dangers may lurk in our society today? The stories of the radium girls offer a cautionary tale to consider how tomorrow’s discoveries may unveil the toxic nature of our actions today.
If You Go:
The Region 10 Players presents Radium Girls on March 15th at 7:00pm, March 16th at 7:00pm, and March 17th at 2:00pm, at the Lewis Mills Auditorium. General Admission is $12 and Student/Senior is $8. In order to buy tickets, go to www.region10players.org.
