The Half-Life of Marie Curie

By: Lauren Gunderson

Narrated by: Kate Mulgrew, Francesca Faridany

Length: 1 hr and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

In 1912, scientist Marie Curie spent two months on the British seaside at the home of Hertha Ayrton, an accomplished mathematician, inventor, and suffragette. At the time, Curie was in the throes of a scandal in France over her affair with Paul Langevin, which threatened to overshadow the accomplishment of her second Nobel Prize.

Performed by Kate Mulgrew and Francesca Faridany at the Minetta Lane Theatre, this play by Lauren Gunderson is an ode to two remarkable women who, despite tremendous personal and professional obstacles, continued to devote their lives to scientific innovation and social change.

Playwright Lauren Gunderson was awarded a commission through the Audible Emerging Playwrights Fund, an initiative dedicated to developing innovative original plays driven by language and voice. As an Audible commissioned playwright, she received funding and creative support to develop The Half Life of Marie Curie.

Directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch
Sound design by Darron L. West

©2019 Lauren Gunderson (P)2019 AO Media LLC

Came for the science left with the guilt

Ok, I want to start off by saying that it’s going to sound like I hated the story, and I didn’t, it’s just not what I had hoped for. Also, the performers were great, they transported me there, and had good conveyance of emotion. Here we have a great opportunity to peek inside the personal life one of the greatest scientific historical figures, and all we get is gossip and a second hand failed love story? There was a missed opportunity to show an EXAMPLE of a courageous woman showing how she demanded respect by being a truly amazing scientist., doing science stuff. But this story reduces her to gossip, complaining, bitterness, and misogyny. Why not throw a little science in there too? Why not touch on history, why just say “I’m so great, I’m so smart” when you could have shown us how? It’s ok to include this whole aspect of the story, but add to it, focus more on the ‘how’ and the ‘why’. I would have loved to hear more on the war aspect, in addition to the science aspect. I believe this story achieves the opposite effect of what they were going for when the reduced someone so amazing to a gossipy complainer, who ragged on how unfair those men are, disappointing.

The accent...

So, first I think I’m just not a fan of audible dramas and maybe would have preferred a different genre for this (maybe something less casual)- thus, my four stars for story. However what got me most was the accent used for Marie Curie’s lines. It was a thick French accent even though she lived in Poland until her mid-twenties and was known to maintain a strong Polish identity even while in France. It’s unreasonable to expect her to have a strong French accent like that. Now maybe the point is she’s “speaking French” but doing it in English for us listeners, but it still took me out of the story too much.

Might not bother many people- I just happen to be an academic in linguistics and can’t help listening to accents.

Feminist Foul Mouthed Fast-paced Fabulous

Fabulous Feminist Foul Mouthed Fast-paced show about Friendship. Will listen to again and again.
Favorite line: I'm a mechanical engineer and mother of two. I can fix anything.

Not For Me

I was interested to learn more about Marie Curie after learning a bit about her in the Cosmos tv series. This wasn’t what I expected. There is a lot of language in this and the language itself doesn’t bother me. I can’t comment on how women of the 19th century spoke in private, but I have a hard time imagining it was like this. The bad language just feels like it’s very forced into this for no real purpose. The accents also came across as forced to me. There was very little about Marie’s accomplishments. It is primarily just drama surrounding her personal life, which was interesting to a degree, but I would have preferred hearing about all that in a documentary not a drama.

French accent?

Do not understand Marie Curie's French accent considering that, while she lived as an adult in France, she was actually from Poland.

Definitely not a fan

I may be one of the few people who didn’t like this book. While I admit it was interesting historically (I certainly learned things about Marie Curie and Hertha Ayrton), it never engaged me. Neither character felt particularly believable - particularly Hertha’s character. It felt very much like a workshop piece, a play-in-development, that needed more time and effort to spring to life. It was actually hard for me to make it through 79 minutes.

Fantastic!

It opened a door into these women's lives that I guess I had walked by before. Both actresses are amazing and the story uplifting. I will be listening again to this with my grown daughter as soon as I can.

Women who changed the world in spite of patriarchy

I am as passionate about this title as Marie Curie and Herther Ayrton were about their science. I had heard of Curie of course [who hasn't--she's about the only female scientist most science textbooks menion], I had not heard of Ayrton. Their discoveries and inventions are embedded one way or another in our daily lives.

Of course they were suffragists. Ayrton spent time in jail for the cause. Curie fought for women in science by being herself and following where her intellect led her no matter who tried to stop her. And so many did. Because of her affair with Paul Langevin, also a physicist but unfortunately married, she was almost prevented from showing up at the Nobel Ceremony to be honored for her SECOND Nobel prize because of the "shame" her affair. Of course, Paul attended without opposition. Thanks to the support of her dearest friend Herther, she showed up anyway, and made a point of stopping at each table full of guests to thank them graciously for her prize.

Kate Mulgrew [Marie] and Francesca Faridany [Herther] offer outstanding performances. It feels as if they are channeling the two women. They are as passionate for their roles as Marie e& Herther werer fo their science, and for women.

Marie and Herther: two brazen, brilliant, strong women without whom our modern lives would be very different, with their passion for science, for exploration, for adventures of the mind, are the best role models for any girl or woman interested in making her mark on the world, whatever field of endeavor that might be.

Oh, my. How I dearly wish I could have heard or seen this play when I was 14 & trying to figure out what to do with my life.

Make sure the girls & women in your lives receive copies for Christmas.

Every daughter, every mother, every granddaughter must listen to and/or see this play. It brings me to tears of gratitude for these women.

We stand on the shoulders of giants.

This is a Masterpiece!

The dialogue, the performance, the production, the message, the emotion: perfect.

and now I need to add random words so Audible will allow me to post :)

A missed opportunity and a terrible depiction

While Hertha Ayrton's character came across as strong minded, empowered, intelligent, and intriguing, the portayal of Marie Curie as a whiny and overly emotional French floozy is downright irritating and a terrible depiction of an inspiring woman. This was an awesome (and missed) opportunity to tell the magnificent story of a heroine to science. What a dreadful and shameful representation of Marie Curie.

The Half Life Of Marie Curie

Performances that take you to another place. Seeing as a play, watching the actors is one thing. This, as audio, is another journey, more powerful. Close your eyes and just listen. Become a part of their journey and 'live' it with them. Both actresses draw you in and spiritually you are there with them. Beautifully acted and written. You feel honoured to feel you are sharing their journey and their amazing friendship, their love for each other, these two amazing women. When I 'returned', face tear stained, my home was in darkness, because I had been truly 'away'. Thank you to all for my amazing journey with you, for allowing me the honour of sharing something which enriches me.

Still saving lives

This performance was brilliant, sounded like what a true long term friendship sounds like. The back and forth, giving up because your friend is overbearing but still going back into the fray.
The story gives an insight to a woman who is still saving lives with her discovery and brilliant mind to this day, who knows how farther behind we would be medically if this wasn't discovered when it was and how to use it.
I always enjoy a story that sparks an interest to find out more, about a person or a subject and this ticks the boxes.

Brilliant! Engaging and informative.

Thoroughly enjoyable play. Really well performed. Highly recommend.





Audible insists on more words blah blah blah.

Bellissimo

Simple stunning, surprisingly small yet supremely significant.
will leave you in awe and wonder.
Bellissimo!

Review

A brilliant listen with wonderful sound effects and production, Kate Mulgrew is terrific as always.

So beautiful story and performance. I recommend.

Very addictive story or two smart women told in the great way which makes you feel like you are part of the story of your life. I recommend to everyone.

A good insight into her life

What a great story about a marvellous inspirational lady and her last years, when women scientists were looked down on by their male counterparts. Narrator was perfect for the roles. I really enjoyed listening to this piece of history

A Joy

I devoured this in one go. Simply wonderful. A story from the perspectives of two incredible women that had me laughing out loud one moment and feeling heartbreak the next. The performances were stellar. Kate is always a joy to listen to but Francesca really bought Marie to life. Highly recommended.

Awful lector!

I had to stop after 10-15 minutes. You can’t listen to it! Why the lector is speaking with fake French accent?? She sounds like actress from the “Allo, Allo!” comedy! Just horrible and unnecessary.
Marie Skłodowska - Curie was not French!

history through a distorted lens

Marie Curie was a genius and Hertha Ayrton was also brilliant but this play only sees them through 21st century feminist eyes and assigns them viewpoints they almost certainly didn't posses.