These Shining Lives at Actors Co-op Theatre

These Shining Lives

Actors Co-op Theatre
1760 N. Gower Street Hollywood

In These Shining Lives, women in the 1920s are thrilled to earn high wages doing the delicate work of painting iridescent dials on watch faces in a factory in the Midwest. Catherine, a mother of twins, eagerly joins the workforce, but as she grows older, she and her coworkers discover that they all suffer from radium poisoning. Despite their deteriorating health, they courageously take action against the watch company.

Thru - Mar 30, 2025

Fridays: 7:30pm

Saturdays: 2:30pm & 7:30pm

Sundays: 2:30pm

Show Type: Drama

Box Office: 323-462-8460

www.actorsco-op.org

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These Shining Lives Reviews

Average Rating based on 5 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

LA Splash - Highly Recommended

"...Skillfully helmed by Thom Babbes, THESE SHINING LIVES slowly builds up tension as the women become sicker and sicker – and finally are fired for missing too many days at work. The talented ensemble cast grips the audience as their plight grows and their fear escalates. The production team – including Joel Daavid’s set design and Nick Santiago’s projections – place the women in the center of an abstract quilt of time – which may be running out as ticking time slows and then speeds up. A. Jeffrey Schoenberg’s costumes take us back to an era when workers’ conditions were of little concern to top management, and Derrick McDaniel’s lighting and David Marling’s guide us on this inexorable and tragic journey."

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- Elaine Mura

Stage Scene LA - Highly Recommended

"...All of this adds up to a play that wears its progressive politics on its sleeve while packing a gut-puncher of a punch, and with Thom Babbes once again showing off masterful directorial gifts and a Grade-A cast delivering one pitch-perfect performance after another, Actors Co-op's latest reveals a company more than capable of competing with L.A.'s edgiest 99-seat theaters while maintaining its longstanding faith-based focus on producing works that inspire and uplift."

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- Steven Stanley

Stage Raw - Somewhat Recommended

"...But the production, which leans into melodrama, doesn't pack the dynamic it should. One major drawdown is how it presents the marriage between Tom and Catherine ' as written, joyful despite the couple's spats and integral to the story because it's part of the portrait of Catherine as happy ' until her health takes a turn for the worse. But from the beginning, Jay's portrayal of a passionately enamored spouse doesn't resonate. Lines are spoken, but little of this actor's own self seems invested. With minimal on-stage chemistry, these domestic scenes lack truth."

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- Deborah Klugman

Peoples World - Highly Recommended

"...Playwright Melanie Marnich has captured not only the language and music of these women, whose idea of a fun day is an outing on the shores of Lake Michigan, but their aspiration to earn a few dollars, to become financially independent and able to treat themselves to a banana split or a new pair of shoes once in a while. The pace steps up as with each turn of their workplace disease, the women are forced to overcome expected demeanors of shyness and humility if they are to pursue justice."

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- Eric A. Gordon

Larchmont Buzz - Highly Recommended

"...Thom Babbes directs this true story of “the Radium Girls” with a light touch. The fact that this is a true story with ramifications and lessons still reverberating a hundred years later ups the stakes. But both director and playwright find the humanity and humor in what could be melodramatic material. This is a lovely and moving show."

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- Laura Foti Cohen

These Shining Lives at Actors Co-op Theatre