These Shining Lives

St. John’s Players present THESE SHINING LIVES by Melanie Marnich follows the compelling stories of the “Radium Girls,” young women in the 1920’s and ‘30’s who painted the faces of luminous watches and clocks with radioactive paint.

Set in Chicago and Ottawa, IL, home of the Radium Dial Company, the play deals with the true story of Catherine Donohue, who begins working at the factory with the excitement of a newly liberated woman entering the workforce in 1922.

It then follows her life through her cancer diagnosis and the litigation she pursued against Radium Dial into the late 1930’s. THESE SHINING LIVES chronicles the strength and determination of women considered expendable in their day, exploring their true story and its continued resonance.

Theirs is a story of survival in its most transcendent sense, as they refuse to allow the company that stole their health to kill their spirits—or endanger the lives of those who come after them. The real-life Radium Girls took their company to court and achieved a long-lasting victory over corporations with poor workplace conditions and worker’s compensation that is still in effect today.