The Radiant at The Actors Company

The Radiant depicts the story of scientist Marie Curie after the death of her partner in marriage and science, Pierre Curie, in a horrific accident. She shared the Nobel Prize in physics with her husband and a colleague in 1903, becoming the first female awardee. In 1911, she won the Nobel Prize in chemistry, being the only woman to win twice. Following her husband's death in 1906, she is alone with two children to raise, simultaneously continuing her vital and pioneering scientific work. She finds herself increasingly drawn to her lab partner, the younger, married Paul Langevin. The two become lovers, and when news of their clandestine affair is leaked to the Paris tabloids, she is the focus of a scandal that threatens her life and career and the safety of her children. A naturalized French citizen, she had been born in Warsaw to an atheist father and a Catholic mother. Nonetheless, the xenophobic and anti-Semitic press of the time attack her for being a foreigner and, supposedly, a Jew. She is forced to flee from home after it is attacked by an angry mob. She returns to Paris to advance her research and, as the years pass, it is evident that she is becoming affected by the radioactive nature of her materials.