Recently, it appears that women have been taking center stage in awards shows, books, and politics. So it seems apt that the Furman Playhouse would choose to do a female-centric play for it’s most recent show. These Shining Lives is a story about working women in the 1920s whose initial enjoyment of self-sufficiency and freedom turns tragic when they discover that the paint they’ve been using at work is diluted with radium.
The story is centered on the friendship of four women. Lizzie Dockery is charming and likable as the lead, Catherine Donohue. Grace Bernardo, familiar to anyone who saw Gruesome Playground Injuries in the fall, plays the smart-mouthed Charlotte and does an excellent job of navigating poignant scenes without betraying her character’s hardness. Tierney Breedlove makes a role that could’ve easily been ditzy warm and wonderful. Victoria Buck, as Frances, ties it together with consistency and likability. Together, they have fantastic chemistry.
Additionally, Dockery and Sam Nelson, who plays Charlotte’s husband, have a chemistry of their own and create a believable relationship. Mr. Leed is the face of the villain corporation and could have stood to be a little more sinister in order to add nobility to the other character’s confrontations with him.
The first act is strong. Twenties era music sets the mood nicely, and the set changes are fluid and create a lot with very little. Charlotte addresses the audience through monologues, which are delivered with a little too much gravity. It’s worth it, though, to see the beautifully lit shining stars that come out in the semi-darkness the monologues are set in.
Most of the problems with the play rest in the second act, which has confusing jumps in time that make plot points unclear. Charlotte undergoes a transformation, but this is only portrayed with a pair of glasses and a limp. The pain in watching the main character, who is so vital and strong, fall apart is not entirely convincing.
Still, when the final message of These Shining Lives is given to us at the end, the audience is given a proper sense of completion, with a reminder of its central friendships and the reality of the characters’ battles.
