Marie Curie is a familiar name to most, but not necessarily a familiar story. We know of radium, of her Nobel honors and partnership in work and life with husband Pierre Curie. But what lies beyond the stoic portraits and textbook biographies of one of the great minds of the 20th century?
That’s one of the questions at the heart of Lauren Gunderson’s The Half-Life of Marie Curie, on stage April 3-19 at The Gaslight Theater. The production, co-produced by the St. Louis Actors’ Studio and The Orange Girls, is directed by Nancy Bell and stars Orange Girls founders Meghan Baker and Michelle Hand as Curie and her friend and colleague Hertha Ayrton.
Stay up-to-date with the local arts scene
Subscribe to the weekly St. Louis Arts+Culture newsletter to discover must-attend art exhibits, performances, festivals, and more.
The Half-Life of Marie Curie sees Curie at the center of a scandal—the widowed scientist was involved with a married man and vilified in the press for the affair—and searching for solace and safety from the negative attention. Ayrton, an electromechanical engineer and suffragette, opens her summer home in England to Curie and sets off a tale of female friendship, scientific inquiry, and hope amid dark times.
“I think it speaks to a very modern concept that we’re dealing with right now in social media, where it doesn’t matter what kind of person you are…All of us are complex human beings, but the moment something becomes famous about you, particularly in the negative sense, you are reduced to that thing forever,” Baker says. “That was happening to [Curie], and this friendship she had was hugely powerful. She was infamously a very private person, and her public persona was aloof. Her inner circle were really trusted people and trusted friends, and I love the fact that we get to peek behind the curtain into that in this moment of real struggle.”
It’s a fitting story for season 18 at STLAS, which is dedicated to “The Female Lead.” The Half-Life of Marie Curie not only centers on the stories of two brilliant women blazing trails at the turn of the century, but it’s told by lifelong friends and creative partners Baker and Hand, who have long championed women’s stories and women storytellers. In addition to the central pair, The Half-Life of Marie Curie is brought to life by a creative team that is also primarily made up of women, including the technical professionals on lights, props, and sound.
“This was really a nice synergistic opportunity for us to not only co-produce something again and bring that forward, but to also bring forward a story that we really felt passionately about,” Baker says. “These two prominent women in science are lauded for their achievements, but the story of their friendship really felt like a story that needed to be told.”
Described as “a 90-minute slice of history brimming with wit and wisdom” by the New York Stage Review, the play treads the fine line between comedy and drama, history and surrealism. Sure, there are science jokes. There are also plenty of poignant conversations. Yes, the story exists at a distinct moment. But it also takes audiences on a strange and rapid journey through time. It is, like Curie and Ayrton, many things at once.
Part of what makes this show so special for the team bringing it to life—and, they hope, for audiences—is the pair of actresses telling the story together. Bell joked that she should always work with friends because it was so easy. The leads didn’t have to be taught how to naturally laugh together. The roles Curie and Ayrton inhabit—mothers, wives, leaders—are all familiar territory, and territory Baker and Hand have navigated together.
“Michelle and I have been friends for so long. We’ve gone through having babies together, we’ve been young, and we’ve gone through divorces together. We’ve been friends for 30 years. So exploring another two women’s friendship and those conversations…we’ve lived that,” Baker says. “And not just the fun ones where we’re drunk on a couch, but there’s also a conversation about identity in the first third of the play that is a conversation Michelle and I have had. I didn’t expect that it would feel so relatable and so universal to how women remind each other of who they are. That’s something Michelle has certainly had to do for me over the years.”
READ MORE: Things to do in St. Louis this weekend
Through the dark and difficult times, Curie and Ayrton remain constants in one another’s lives. They are dear friends, but they also offer the invaluable element of understanding. They have traveled the scientific sphere as the one woman in the room. They have lost loves and carried on. They have raised children while pursuing dreams beyond their own households. And each knows that at least one other person in their world understands completely.
“How lonely it must have been for these two women to be moving through a world where everybody else is a man,” Hand says. “There are several places in the script where they’re like, I know you, you’re the only other person in the world who I could say this to and they would understand. Because they’re not just bonding as moms or as widows, but as people who have this rarefied glimpse into the secrets of the universe that nobody else gets except for the two of them. I loved the fact that that is sort of the core of this relationship. Meg is one of my oldest and dearest friends. And so to be able to do this with her on stage is just so extraordinary.”
Baker and Hand hope that, by the time the curtain closes, audiences have not only learned something more about who these intelligent, ambitious women really were, but also the key piece of knowledge they carried with them: That they couldn’t do it alone.
“Female friendship is really unique in that we really do hold each other and carry each other through so many things, so many phases in life,” Baker says. “We’re in a world right now where it’s so easy to isolate. But we still do need each other, through the good and bad…You can’t isolate yourself and suffer alone—it’s not the way to survive or thrive in this life.”
The Half-Life of Marie Curie runs Thursdays-Sundays April 3-19 at The Gaslight Theater (358 N. Boyle). For tickets and more information, visit stlas.org.
