I grew up hearing the name “Madame Curie,” which summons a salaciousness befitting a woman who runs a brothel. Rather ironically, her more patriarchal contemporaries probably preferred it that way. When you pronounce “Marie Curie" together, by a stretch, it sounds like it belongs on the Periodic Table of Elements, a place where the intelligent and ambitious pioneer felt most at home. Fittingly, An Evening with Marie Curie: Rogue Scientist is a reclamation of her accomplishments and what she struggled with to achieve them. The full-length play (with intermission) opens with some tinkling piano keys accenting a vile of glowing green radium illuminating the otherwise pitch-dark performance space. The lights edge up slightly to reveal the t...
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