Event

A Crime in the Neighborhood

A CRIME IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD by Suzanne Berne, adapted by James Glossman, directed by Terry McCabe. February 28 - April 13.

A Crime in the Neighborhood won the 1999 Orange Prize, given each year to a female author of any nationality for the best original full-length novel written in English. It was also a New York Times Notable Book. Set in a suburb of Washington D.C. in the summer of 1972, the book tells of three events that shatter the serenity of ten-year-old Marsha's life: her father runs away with her mother's sister; a young boy of her acquaintance is molested and murdered; and the Watergate scandal begins to unfold. Living in a world no longer safe or familiar, Marsha turns increasingly to her "book of evidence" in which she records the doings of the neighbors, especially of shy Mr. Green next door. The book is written in the voice of the adult Marsha recalling the events that changed her life that summer. Glossman's adaptation breaks the character into two: the 10-year-old girl she was when the events happened, and the adult woman who is looking back at it.