Butcher

Oates (Zero-Sum) dives into the real career of Dr. Silas Weir (narrated by Robert Fass) as he evolves from being a doctor who fainted when looking at female genitalia to a monster mutilating women inmates at the New Jersey State Asylum for Female Lunatics in the 1800s. A full cast skillfully portrays witnesses to Weir’s descent, with each telling of their experience. Narrator Tavia Gilbert conveys the sorrow felt by a wealthy woman who spurned Weir’s romantic attentions, while a fellow apprentice doctor, voiced by Edoardo Ballerini, expresses gnawing disdain. An emotional edge to editorial notes by Weir’s son is palpable in Max Myer’s nuanced delivery. Jeremy Carlisle Parker projects a wealthy wife’s eerie calmness as she desperately seeks a cure. Danny Campbell intensely chronicles a local gravedigger’s awe, then disgust at Weir’s failed experiments. Dr. Weir’s first patient at the asylum, the deaf Irish indentured servant Brigit (superbly captured by Amy Shiels), blooms as she goes from the object of his obsession to his downfall, and Cassandra Campbell describes the horrific attack on Weir.