Trifles

Susan Glaspell's "Trifles" (1916) appears more in play anthologies than on stage. Based on Glaspell's short story "A Jury of Her Peers" and her own reporting on a real-life murder case, the brief play takes place in the rustic kitchen of Mrs. Wright, a woman accused of strangling her mean-spirited husband as he slept. While male authority figures search for a motive, two housewives discover the incriminating evidence amid details of womanly concern such as quilts and fruit preserves. Concluding that Mrs. Wright was driven to homicide by her spouse's brutal treatment, the ladies conceal their findings from the men, who condescendingly chuckle over their talk of "trifles."

Brooke O'Harra's production for the Obie-winning Theatre of a Two-headed Calf brings this rarely seen piece off the library shelf and to vital life. Not all of her directorial choices come off, but she infuses this study of unspoken desperation with fascinating menace. Among the risks that work are Brendan Connelly's "Twilight Zone"–ish score, performed by the percussion quartet Yarn/Wire. When the play begins, the lights slowly fade on Peter Ksander's detailed farmhouse set, and the creepy music steals in telling us something dreadful has happened. Justin Townsend's spooky rays of light come out of the stove, the ceiling, and from behind a huge photo of a farm printed on computer paper. In another piece of inventive staging, during the scenes when the women are alone, O'Harra drops the fourth wall: The men slowly enter the distaff territory, walking through windows and beaverboard, symbolizing male oppression.

On the negative side, O'Harra interrupts the script too often with unexplained wordless vocalizing and long pauses. The singing struck me as pointless, particularly as the actors smile during most of it. The pauses are effective at first in conveying the characters' fear of what they might find, but O'Harra overuses the device, so that by the end of the play's hourlong running time it comes across as a parody of Pinter.

Only Caitlin McDonough-Thayer as Mrs. Hale, the more insightful of the two housewives, makes all those silences meaningful, by pouring in volumes of subtext. You can see a lifetime of drudgery on her face as she suppresses her feelings about Mrs. Wright's fate, which could easily be her own. The actor also handles the spoken dialogue with skill. As she describes Mr. Wright ("He was a hard man") and recalls his wife as a happy young girl, you can almost feel Mrs. Hale's bristling anger and frustration. Her performance and O'Harra's sensitive direction just about make up for the production's missteps.

Presented by the Theatre of a Two-headed Calf in association with the Ontological-Hysteric Incubator at the Ontological-Hysteric Theater at St. Mark's Church, 131 E. 10th St., NYC. Jan. 28–Feb. 14. Thu.–Sun., 8 p.m. (212) 351-3101, (866) 811-4111, www.theatermania.com, or www.ontological.com.