Performance Overview

Fear spreads like fire in a recontextualized rural Louisiana in the late 1920s, where already ostracized women find themselves under immense scrutiny and suspicion. In “Vinegar Tom,” rumors take hold, neighbors turn against one another and an escalating movement of witch-hunting become a tool for control. 

Caryl Churchill’s powerful play uses witch trials as a stark lens for who in society is scapegoated when hard times stoked the need to have someone to blame.  Scenes of daily life shift rapidly into escalating accusations, revealing how quickly safety can disappear when mistrust takes hold. 

Directed by fourth-year student Breylyn Brown as a senior thesis project, this production brings fresh urgency to Churchill’s text as it highlights both the resilience and vulnerability of marginalized identities navigating a system built to define them — a theme that still resonates in present day.