The Summer Savoyards are bringing two rarely performed plays by early 20th-century women playwrights to the stage in a program titled Love and Murder: An Evening of Female Playwrights.
The production pairs Susan Glaspell’s murder mystery Trifles with It At Least, an early version of a play by Dorothy Parker that would later evolve into Here We Are. Director and costume designer Julia Adams says the pairing highlights two distinct theatrical voices from the same era.
“We are doing two plays—Trifles and It At Least—both by female playwrights in the early 20th century,” Adams said. “The first one is the murder mystery Trifles by Susan Glaspell, which is considered to be kind of the first of the nosy-neighbor, Agatha Christie, Father Brown whodunit mysteries. And it’s actually based on a true story.”
Glaspell originally worked as a journalist and court reporter. Adams notes that the real-life case that inspired Trifles had a lasting impact on the playwright.
“She was the court reporter for the original case that Trifles is built upon,” Adams explained. “It happened in 1900 in Des Moines. The original woman was Margaret Hossack, an abused woman accused of killing her husband. She was convicted, and it bothered Susan Glaspell so much that she actually stopped being a reporter and started writing fiction.”
About a decade later, Glaspell returned to the case as the inspiration for her play.
Actor Melissa Neufer portrays Mrs. Hale, a neighbor whose perspective helps shape the audience’s understanding of the mystery.
“She’s the nosy neighbor, as Julia mentioned—the farmer’s wife,” Neufer said. “As the play goes on, you find out maybe she did know the victim a little bit more than others. She kind of introduces you to the different characteristics of the characters. She’s a classic farm wife, but maybe there’s a side to her that a lot of people don’t get to see when the men aren’t around.”
Neufer says the play also explores the ways women communicated with one another during the period.
“When the men are around, she needs to be prim and proper and obey and listen,” Neufer said. “But when the men are not in the room, she can talk a little more freely and share what’s on her mind with her friend Mrs. Peters. She can just be a little more open.”
The second play on the program, It At Least, offers a comedic contrast. Adams describes the piece as a witty look at a newlywed couple traveling to their honeymoon in New York City.
“It’s very tongue-in-cheek—very wink-wink, nudge-nudge,” Adams said. “All of the man’s lines are very ‘just you wait, ha ha ha,’ but the woman’s lines mirror that energy. They’re constantly missing each other’s inroads, which makes it a really interesting and funny piece.”
Adams discovered the rarely performed work in an unexpected place.
“I actually read it over the summer in a doctor’s office in a Reader’s Digest,” she said. “It’s an interesting look at newlyweds from that time period, but Dorothy Parker wrote it so that the female character is just as high on innuendo as the male character—which you would expect from Dorothy Parker.”
Because Adams is also designing the costumes, the production places special emphasis on historical detail. Trifles is set around 1919 in a rural farmhouse, while It At Least takes place in 1925.
“Trifles is very rustic—it’s winter, so there are lots of layers,” Adams said. “Then It At Least is very much that 1920s flapper look.”
Neufer says the historical setting highlights how dramatically life has changed for women over the past century.
“I’m very thankful for the women before me who fought so I’m not my husband’s or my father’s property,” she said. “This was a time period where that was different. Women were expected to clean the house, take care of the kids, help run the farm. It’s not like that today, and I think audiences will see that difference when they come to the show.”
Love and Murder: An Evening of Female Playwrights will be performed March 20, 21, 27 and 28 at 7:30 p.m., with 2:30 p.m. matinees March 21, 22 and 28 in the Annex of the Bundy Museum, 129 Main Street in Binghamton. More information is available at https://summersavoyards.org.