the half-life of marie curie
By Lauren Gunderson
8th of March 2021
On International Women’s day 2021 we gave a livestream reading of Lauren Gunderson’s The Half-life of Marie Curie. This play from 2019 portrays two of the most prominent women in scientific history; their friendship, quarrels and their fight against the inequalities – professional as well as private – that they face.
Paris, 1911. Nobel Prize awarded scientist Marie Curie finds herself being the object of ruthless gossip over an alleged affair with the married Frenchman Paul Langevin, all but erasing her achievements from public memory. Weakened and demoralized by the press lambasting her as a “foreign" Jewish temptress and a homewrecking traitor, Marie agrees to join her friend and colleague Hertha Ayrton, an electromechanical engineer and suffragette, and recover from the scandal at Hertha's seaside retreat on the British coast.
The Half-life of Marie Curie revels in the power of female friendship as it explores the relationship between these two brilliant women, both of whom are mothers, widows, and fearless champions of scientific inquiry.
“A frisky, feminist crowd-pleaser, The Half-life of Marie Curie radiates empowerment — which is fitting, since it centers on the woman who coined the term radioactivity. ...enlightening and entertaining.”
- Time Out New York
THE HALF-LIFE OF MARIE CURIE was originally commissioned by AO Media, LLC and produced in New York City by Audible Theater.
Teaterförlag: Nordiska ApS - www.nordiska.dk