The Red Hook High School Hardscrabble Players’ fall play, “Radium Girls” is this weekend at the school’s Performing Arts Center.
The D.W. Gregory play tells the true story of female factory workers in the 1910s and 20s who suffered from radium poisoning and engaged in a legal battle after painting watch dials with radium-based paint. The play, published in 2000, is “a wry examination of the commercialization of science and the twin American obsessions with the pursuit of health and wealth,” according to Gregory’s website.
The Hardscrabble Players will perform the show Friday, Nov. 7 and Saturday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 9 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for students and children, and only cash will be accepted.
Roughly 40 students are part of the productions. One of them, senior Elijah Marlborough, created the poster pictured here.
Director Brendan Fix said the play showcases the club's group of talented seniors, including Nora Callaghan-Jurgens, Lennon Winters, Gavin Bogert, Osrick Klähr and Marlborough, and praised the work of senior crew members Cat Jude, Sarah Garvey, Jade Zhang and Kieran Cook. 
The production is filled with interesting props and set pieces provided by several community contributors, Fix said, which helps the students fill out their world visually.
"I wanted to give the kids a chance to do something that was more dramatic," Fix said. "The performances are so incredible. These kids are going to blow peoples' minds. I don't think they're prepared to come here and see something so profound and serious."
Fix called the play and the accompanying book "fascinating," noting students are also reading the book in his journalism class.
"We're doing something different and fun," Fix said of the play, "and taking it as far as we can."