Pam Mautz Cantrell and Jessica White
MOLINE, ILLINOIS (September 4, 2025) – The Black Box Theatre located in downtown Moline presents the area premiere of the Lauren Gunderson two-hander The Half-Life of Marie Curie starring Jessica White as Marie Curie and Pam Mautz Cantrell as Hertha Ayrton. Half-Life is their first show on The Black Box stage. The play is directed and designed by Lora Adams (co-founder and artistic director) with light design by Alexander Richardson and sound design by Doug Kutzli. The Black Box has produced other plays of Gundersons including I and You and The Revolutionists.
The story: 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.
The Half-life of Marie Curie revels in the power of female friendship as it explores the relationship between these two brilliant women, both of whom are mothers, widows, and fearless champions of scientific inquiry.
“I love Gunderson’s writing so when I read Half-Life; I knew it was perfect for The Black Box. It’s not only a wonderful story, but I learned things about her accomplishments other than her Nobel prizes,” said Adams. “I think others will love it too.”
The show runs September 19, 20, 25, 26, and 27 at 7:30PM and September 21 and 28 at 2PM. Tickets are $18 are available at the door or at theblackboxtheatre.com.
