Half Life Marie Curie

The Half-Life of Marie Curie

Playwright: Lauren Gunderson

Directed by: Nancy Bell

April 3-19, 2026

Starring Michelle Hand* and Meghan Baker

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 home wrecking traitor, Marie agrees to join her friend and colleague Hertha Ayrton, an electromechanical engineer and suffragette, at her summer home in England. 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.

*Member Actors' Equity Association

New York Stage Review

“It’s rare to classify a show as both fun and educational, but Lauren Gunderson’s The Half-Life of Marie Curie is just that—a 90-minute slice of history brimming with wit and wisdom, powered by two turn-of-the-20th-century female STEM stars.”