Venue: Ensemble Theatre (Kirribilli NSW), Jun 13 – Jul 12, 2025
Playwright: Lauren Gunderson
Director: Liesel Badorrek
Cast: Rebecca Massey, Gabrielle Scawthorn
Images by Prudence Upton
Theatre review
It was 1911 when Marie Curie won her second Nobel Prize, but her monumental contribution to science was overshadowed by the public outcry over her scandalous relationship with a married man. In her agony, she takes refuge under the wing of fellow scholar Hertha Ayrton, who is determined to be a source of strength and inspiration. Lauren Gunderson’s The Half-Life of Marie Curie is a work that not only pays tribute to women trailblazers, but also highlights the importance of female friendship in a world that so often prefers to pit women against each other.
Vivaciously directed by Liesel Badorrek, the production is surprisingly comedic, despite the titular character’s unrelenting misery. Actor Gabrielle Scawthorn’s representations of Curie’s pain and suffering are almost unbearable in their believability, but the sublime Rebecca Massey is pure joy as Ayrton, offering a marvellous counterpoint to the dominant narrative of hardship.
Production design by James Browne is effective in taking us back to the appropriate time and space, whilst providing a charming theatricality to the experience. Lights by Verity Hampson take every opportunity to dial up the drama, while video projections by Cameron Smith deliver persuasive renderings of evanescent visions. Music by Daniel Hertern is at times beautifully transcendent, for a show that is as much about the past as it is about our future.
There are many forms of resistance, but the revolution will only endure, if the sisterhood remains unbreakable in its unity.
Suzy Goes See 