The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds by Paul Zindel
Directed by Jesse Gephart

Raleigh Ensemble Players Theatre Company presents the Pulitzer Prize and Obie Award winning play The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds by Paul Zindel. Performed in REP’s upstairs studio space at 213 Fayetteville Street, ‘Gamma Rays’ is a semi-autobiographical drama, based on Zindel’s own experiences growing up in a single-parent household, that focuses on an eccentric, embittered widow and the two teenage daughters she must raise.

The title comes from the mother’s anger at her daughter's science teacher for encouraging her to expose marigolds to gamma rays as a science project. Her experiment shows how radiation sometimes kills growing marigolds, but sometimes it causes them to grow even more beautiful. This experiment becomes a metaphor for her own life, as she struggles to bloom in a household deadened by her mother's alcoholism and her sister's lethargy. Zindel refers to this play as “a love letter to my teachers and the entire public school system that served as a salvation for me and my sister from the madhouse.”

Considered the most compelling work of its kind since Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, ‘Gamma Rays’ is a masterful, pacesetting drama that combines moments of pain, poignancy and hope.

Featuring: Whitney Griffin, Lori Ingle, Karen Stallings, Alex terAvest and Sandi Sullivan
 

Ticket prices: $15 Adults, $12 for Seniors & Students. Military Group rates available for 10 or more.