Decades before Erin Brockovich played David to the Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s Goliath, a young woman fought a similarly consequential battle in Ottawa, Illinois, events that playwright Melanie Marnich recounts in These Shining Lives, the stunning latest from Hollywood’s Actors Co-op.

The year is 1922, and Catherine Donohue (Abigail Stewart) couldn’t be more excited about the full-time job she’s about to begin at The Radium Dial Company.

 Not that her husband Tom (Isaac Jay) doesn’t already have gainful employment as a skyscraper steel worker, but with two small mouths to feed, the couple could use the $8-a-day wages (about $150 in today’s currency) Catherine will be earning simply by painting watch dials with a magical glow-in-the-dark powder called radium.

Not only that, but Catherine’s 8-hour-a-day shifts will allow her to forge friendships with female coworkers like sassy, cigarette-smoking flapper Charlotte (Jessica Woehler), joke-cracking Pearl (Allison Schlicher), and “moral backbone” Frances (Shannon Woo).

 As for the job itself, well what could be easier than taking a tiny paintbrush, twirling it between one’s lips to make a point, dipping it into a small jar of radium powder, and painting one watch dial after another to make them visible even in a pitch-dark room.

 There’s certainly no reason for Catherine to worry herself about getting the shiny stuff in her mouth because, as the young women’s boss Mr. Reed (John Colella) informs them, “It’s more than okay. It’s medicinal.”

Or at least that’s what Catherine and her coworkers believe until a half-dozen years (and 218,723 watches) later, they come to the horrifying realization that their hands have started to glow in the dark, and that no matter how hard they scrub, whatever it is that’s causing them to glow can’t be washed off.

With the company doctor reassuring Catherine that there’s no need to fret, her husband convinced that the aches and pains she’s begun to experience are nothing to worry about, a community unwilling to hear evil spoken about its biggest job provider, and a society where the thought of suing one’s employer for damages is virtually unheard of, the odds of justice being served are slim to none, or would be were it not Catherine leading her fellow workers into battle.

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.

Leading lady Stewart is as luminous as she is dynamic, and as Catherine’s initial pluck is transformed by necessity into true grit, she becomes a force of nature where fighting for her life, and those of the ones she loves, is concerned.

Woehler gives Charlotte the pizzazz of a classic 1930s Hollywood comedienne like Ginger Rogers or Joan Blondell and powerhouse dramatic chops when push comes to shove, and Jay evokes memories of Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda and never more so than when Tom’s loving support turns to rage.

Featured turns don’t get any more sparkling than Schlicher’s and Woo’s, and Colella and Michael Kachingwe earn their own high marks for bringing to life multiple roles both virtuous and vile.

Scenic designer Joel Daavid, projection designer Nick Santiago, and lighting designer Derrick McDaniel join creative forces to give These Shining Lives the most striking of production designs, illuminated watch faces and large meshing gears providing an inspired backdrop to more realistic design elements while sound designer David B. Marling underscores the production with 1920s-establishing tunes and assorted effects.

Jeffrey Schoenberg’s costumes, Judi Lewin’s hair, wigs, and makeup, and Kevin Williams props are all era-appropriate, though anyone familiar with Louise Brooks will not find her distinctive hairdo in Catherine’s bangs-free long bob.

These Shining Lives is produced by Crystal Yvonne Jackson. Julia Hibner is stage manager and Nikki Alday is assistant stage manager. Marine Walton is scenic artist. The prerecorded voices of Finn Martinsen and Eloise Lili Martinsen are heard briefly as Tom and Catherine’s children.

Arriving just in time for Women’s History Month at a moment when women and workers find their rights once again in jeopardy, These Shining Lives is as edifying as it is inspirational, and a perfect example of Actors Co-op at its award-worthy best.

Actors Co-op, 1760 N. Gower St., Hollywood. Through March 24. Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30. Sundays at 2:30. Also Saturday May 15 at 2:30.
www.actorsco-op.org

–Steven Stanley
March 8, 2025
Photos: Larry Sandez

Tags: Actors Co-op, Los Angeles Theater Review, Melanie Marnich