The heroic and tragic story of the Radium Girls has been well-documented in recent years. Countless books, plays, and even a Netflix film released in 2020 share the story of the radium factory and the occupational diseases that were contracted by painting watch dials with radium-laced paints to produce a luminescent effect. As many as three hundred workers were hired over the span of a decade, the owners and scientists at the time were familiar with the effects and dangers of radium, and carefully avoided exposure to themselves. Meanwhile, the women were encouraged by the company to create a fine point on the camel hair brushes by using their mouth and tongue to keep the tip sharp in order to paint the small numbers on the watch dials. Many of the workers became sick and by 1927 more than 50 died from direct exposure to radiation.

In fact, this was not the only company using radium this way, an estimated 4,000 workers were hired by corporations in the U.S. and Canada to paint watch faces with radium.

The characters of Grace Fryer and Katherine Schaub were historical figures who did work in a Factory in Orange, NJ which caused a media sensation when they brought their case to trial in 1928. This landmark case ensured the rights of individual workers to sue for damages from corporations due to labor abuse. Because of the strength and determination of Katherine and Grace, industrial safety standards have been significantly strengthened in the American workplace.

D.W. Gregory’s play is highly theatrical in nature. The shifts in time and tone allow the piece to comment on just treatment in the workplace, the relationship between shareholders and workers, commercialization, responsibility, the cost of justice, and the realization of the truth. Gregory, in interviews, has been very forthcoming with the idea that Grace and Roeder share the story of Radium Girls. She has said that “each is the hero of their own story, and they [serve] as each other’s antagonist,“ and “the play forces us to see [Roeder’s] point of view… it doesn’t excuse or exonerate him, but it is an attempt to explain him.”

Radium Girls seeks to show how we all can be blind to the injustices of our time, and the importance of seeing the faces of those affected by those decisions, because only by seeing, and acknowledging their story, can we start to make change.