Two Chances Left to Catch MHS Theatre’s “These Shining Lives” at Madras PAC

The Madras High School Theatre department is entering the final stretch of its production of These Shining Lives, a play chronicling the strength and tragedy of the “Radium Girls.” With only two performances remaining, the production aims to honor the real-life women of the 1920s and 30s who unknowingly sacrificed their lives for a paycheck, ultimately changing American labor laws forever.

The play follows the employees of the Radium Dial Company in Illinois. At the time, radium was marketed not as a toxin, but as a miracle element. Shannon Ahern, the Director of Performing Arts for the Jefferson County School District and the show’s technical director, notes that the job was initially seen as a golden opportunity for women in an era where female employment was scarce. “They were paid at the time quite well based on how much work they could do,” Ahern said. “They were painting watch faces with radium-based paint because it would glow in the dark.” To achieve the precision required for the fine numbers on watch faces, the workers were instructed to use a technique called “lip-pointing“—shaping the tips of their brushes with their mouths.

While the public—and initially the company—viewed radium as a “cure-all” found in everything from bottled water to cosmetics, the grim reality of radiation poisoning soon surfaced. As the women began to suffer from decaying bones and terminal cancers, the company’s silence turned from ignorance to negligence. “The company didn’t tell them,” Ahern explained. “They thought it would cure everything, and then over time realized maybe it wasn’t a good thing… They didn’t bother to tell their workers that.”

Though the story is a tragedy, These Shining Lives highlights the fierce legal battle the women waged while they were dying. Their refusal to stay quiet paved the way for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and modern workplace protections. “Most of them died very young, but they were the reason we have a lot of workers’ rights today,” said Ahern. “Them and the coal mine workers—that’s where a lot of our worker protections came from.”

Final Performance Schedule

• Friday: 7:00 p.m.
• Saturday: 2:00 p.m.
• Location: Madras Performing Arts Center

Tickets are available at the door.