The Woodrow Wilson High School drama department brings "Radiance of a Thousand Suns" to the auditorium stage as this year's fall play. The play follows three stories to emerge from the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima toward the end of World War II.

The curtain rises at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 10-11 and 13, and tickets cost $10 for adults and $5 for students.

Photo by Bill Ellison

The cast of "Radiance of a Thousand Suns"

Theater teacher John Beaird brings a personal perspective to the production. He participated last summer in the Japan Fulbright Memorial program, which helped rebuild Japan after the war.

The play, written by Anne McGravie in 1995 to mark the 50th anniversary of the bombing, focuses on the lifework of an American physicist, from graduate school, to work with Dr. Robert Oppenheimer on the Manhattan Project, through his post-war visit to Hiroshima to see the devastating effects of his work; a childhood friendship between Scottish and Japanese pen-pals who, as women, unite long after the war; and a Japanese Methodist minister who devotes his life to helping Hiroshima survivors, Hibakusha, who were outcasts in their own society.

The play is rated PG-13 because of graphic descriptions of personal injuries and the destruction of Hiroshima.

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