WRITTEN BY LAUREN GUNDERSON
DIRECTED BY KYM PAPPAS
“A 90-minute slice of history brimming with wit and wisdom, powered by two turn-of-the-20th-century female STEM stars.”
—New York Stage Review
SAN DIEGO PREMIERE!
PREVIEWS
JAN 24-31, 2025
OPENING
FEB 1, 2025
SHOW DATES
JAN 24-FEB 23, 2025
THE HALF-LIFE OF MARIE CURIE revels in the power of female friendship as it explores the relationship between two brilliant women, both of whom are mothers, widows, and fearless champions of scientific inquiry. In 1911, Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of the elements radium and polonium. By 1912, she was 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.
PRESENTED BY ARRANGEMENT WITH AUDIBLE THEATRE.
For more information, contact the Box Office at info@newvillagearts.org or (760) 433-3245.