Setting: 1930s New England, a girls’ boarding school. Mary, a disgruntled and notoriously deceitful student, thinks she’s being treated unfairly. Stopping at nothing to get even, she starts a rumor that the headmistresses, Karen and Martha, are having an affair. The ensuing scandal throws the women’s careers into chaos and pushes relationships to the brink, with surprising and devastating consequences for everyone.  A controversial success when it opened on Broadway in 1934, Hellman’s groundbreaking play about the culture of fear and the power of public shaming is startlingly relevant today.