Radium in 1920: a miracle discovery with limitless applications, from iridescent paints and make-up to cancer treatment and health tonics. The craze for radium in the late 1910s and 20s meant big business for companies across the US. It also brought exciting opportunities to painters of illuminated watch faces: dexterous young women, often under 18, who kept the paint brushes pointed and supple with their lips. But when more and more of the girls found their bodies literally falling apart, their struggle for recognition and compensation pitted them against some of the most successful corporations of the day. Their battle set the model for future worker’s protection laws in the United States, but not in time to save their own lives.

RADIUM GIRLS is the story of Grace Fryer of Orange, NJ, and her dogged fight through the newspapers and the courts against US Radium and its lawyers, as well as her struggle to keep the support of her own family. The play is also the story of US Radium CEO Arthur Roeder, caught between his corporate ambitions and responsibilities, and the terrible realization that he has poisoned his devoted workers. The play is a celebration of fortitude and determination, study of denial and rationalization, and a reminder of the dangers of leaping into latest technology before we look at its effects.