Originally staged off-Broadway in 2019, The Half-Life of Marie Curie is making its Philippine Debut this coming August. 

The Half-Life of Marie Curie is a MusicArtes, Inc. production presented by Areté Ateneo and co-presented by the Philippine Theater Actors Guild, Inc. and the Ateneo Fine Arts Department. It will be staged at the Doreen Black Box in Areté, Ateneo de Manila University, with its opening weekend starting this August 23. 

The play was written by Lauren Gunderson, who is one of the most produced playwrights in America (American Theatre Magazine) since 2015. In 2019, her play Silent Sky was produced by Repertory Philippines and directed by Joy Virata. Now, it is time for another of Gunderson’s plays to take the stage in the Philippines. 

The Half-Life of Marie Curie is a story about the titular Marie Curie. After ruthless rumors of a scandalous affair wreck her reputation and career, Marie agrees to join her friend and colleague Hertha Ayrton, an electromechanical engineer and suffragette, to recover from the scandal at Hertha’s seaside retreat on the British coast. The play revels in the power of female friendship and empowerment as it explores the relationship between these two brilliant women, both of whom are mothers, widows, and fearless champions of scientific inquiry. 

This production will be directed by Dr. Kiara Pipino, an Associate Professor of Theatre, a freelance theatre director, a playwright, and an author. She holds a graduate degree in Architecture for Performance from the Universita’ degli Studi di Genova (Italy) under the mentorship of Dario Fo in Italian Commedia dell’Arte and a Masters in Fine Arts in Theatre Directing from the University of Arkansas. Further specialized training includes certification in the Michael Chekhov technique from the Great Lakes Michael Chekhov Consortium. 

Pipino has been directing nationally and internationally for over twenty years. Her plays, Everyone’s a Hero with Someone Else’s Tits and Clytemnestra, were both produced Off Broadway, and Clytemnestra has toured worldwide. 

The two-person cast consists of Missy Maramara as Marie Curie and Caisa Borromeo as Hertha Ayrton. 

Maramara has recently starred in GRACE (2024) and A Very Good Girl (2023), alongside directing The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (2024). She is also a member of SPIT MANILA and is an intimacy coordinator and director for film and theater. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Drama (University of Arkansas, Fayetteville) through the International Fulbright Scholarship Program and a PhD in English Language and Literature from the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines where she is a tenured Assistant Professor. 

Joining her is Borromeo, who has recently directed Elise Santos’ Sa Babaeng Lahat for Virgin Labfest 19: Pintog, was nominated for Featured Actress in a Play for Silent Sky (2019), won a PHILSTAGE GAWAD BUHAY award for Best Female Lead Performance in A Musical for Little Women (2010), and is a vocal coach and Saddle Row instructor. 

The show has begun selling tickets for its opening weekend: August 23 (7PM) to August 24 (3PM and 7PM), at the Doreen Blackbox Theater in Areté, Ateneo. Tickets are priced at Php 700 for the general public, while Senior Citizens, PWDs, and students may avail for their tickets priced at Php 560. Tickets are available for sale at https://bit.ly/MarieCurieMNL2024.

More show dates will be announced soon. Further inquiries can be made through House and Sales Manager, Frankie Ramos, at mariecurie.prod@gmail.com.