About the Play:

Evil Little Thoughts is a full-length comedy by Mark D. Kaufmann. Murder is on the mind of two competing businessmen. An elegant dinner party will be held, bodies will drop. In a world where anything can be rationalized, and morals and ethics are negotiable, the defining line between "good guys" and "bad guys" is very blurry. And there's always a loser.

Evil Little Thoughts is a smart comedy about a Trump-ish tycoon. Douglas Jensen is a corporate raider who has patterned his life on a very simple principle: virtues like honour and respectability don't work. So he doesn't use them. His lovely, unfortunate wife, Anna, writes poetry, which he criticizes mercilessly – on a scale of 1 to 100 she rates a pitiful 14. Jensen's next takeover target is a glue factory owned by Lloyd Price, who is desperate to keep his little business. Jensen puts terrible pressure on Lloyd, who manages to hold out. So the amoral Jensen plans the next step – doing away with Lloyd. Meanwhile turnabout becomes fair play as the beleaguered Lloyd, wanting Jensen dead, hires two hit men. When the chief hit man asks that they postpone the murder so that he may attend the Ice Capades, Lloyd explodes. The Jensens throw a party, to which they invite Lloyd, and it all comes to a head. The bumbling hit men have worked out a Laurel and Hardy poison plan, one posing as the caterer, the other as a waiter with a tray of drinks, which includes a poisoned martini. They fitfully close in on their target despite shifting floor plans and allegiances. The result? Poison flows in surprising directions.

Evil Little Thoughts premiered in 1992 at Denver Center for the Performing Arts and won the Denver Drama Critics Circle Award for Best New Play.

Cast: 2 female, 5 male

What people say:

"A farcical black comedy about corporate values ... combines black-hearted satire with laugh-out loud humor." — Denver Post

About the Playwright:

Mark D. Kaufmann is an American writer, director, and educator. He is the author of a number of plays which have had premieres in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. He has been associated with Educational Theater Association for several years, regularly teaching at their teachers', state and national conferences.