A Gracious Neighbor

In Cander’s (The Weight of a Piano) reworking of Susan Glaspell’s short story “A Jury of Her Peers,” Martha Hale’s life takes an unexpected turn when wealthy, fashionable, and glamorous Minnie Foster Wright moves in next door. Martha becomes obsessed with her new neighbor’s life. Told largely in the first person and eloquently narrated by Karissa Vacker, mercurial Martha comes across as a busybody when she is not wallowing in self-pity at not having the finer things in life, devious as she manipulates her husband into buying a house in the wealthiest part of town, and judgmental when she finds the photos she gifted Minnie torn up and tossed in the trash. Vacker’s nuanced voicings give depth to Martha’s memories of her mother’s Texas twang when sharing life axioms, Minnie’s cheerful pride when discussing her pet bird, John Wright’s self-importance when he shows his true colors in private, her husband’s shock when he discovers the dead body, and Martha’s disgust whenever she hears others gossip about Minnie.