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Emotional Performance Highlights A Grim Tale
Factory worker Hannah Berner, above left, and Grace (Rebecca Phillips) lick brushes as they paint watch dials in Robinson High School's production of "Radium Girls," a play about girls working in a radium factory in the 1920s. At a different performance, Kathryn (Phillips), below from left, Tom Kreiden (Seph Normandy) and Grace (Katy Burnard) are sick with cancer.
(Photos By Joel Richardson -- The Washington Post)
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"Radium Girls" is a touching story about a group of teenage girls at a factory owned by U.S. Radium Corp., painting faces of watches that glowed in the dark. A few years after leaving the factory, the girls acquired a bizarre illness. Suspecting the factory, they struggled with the owners for compensation.
The factory girls had good energy and believable chemistry. Hannah Blechman and Rebecca Phillips, as Kathryn, performed well as factory workers and perfectly conveyed two bickering sisters. Katy Burnard, who played Grace Fryer, gave an energetic and convincing performance. Grace and Kathryn, the two factory girls to live the longest, showed the progression of a deadly illness in ways that went beyond the gruesome makeup.
Liz Venz played several roles, from the woman from the New Jersey Consumer's League who helps the radium girls, to a mother who advertises a radium health drink. Michael Allen as Arthur Roeder and Katie Vallas as his wife, Diane, were a great couple, and their emotional arguments were effectively portrayed.
The curtain never closed for scene changes. There were a number of different settings already positioned on the stage, and with the use of lighting, attention was drawn away from certain areas and toward others. Whenever a large scene change was needed, the blackouts were accompanied by short scenes in the front of the stage.
Despite some difficulty with lines and occasional low energy, Robinson pulled off a very difficult play and received a standing ovation.
Michelle Koob
Osbourn Park
