About the Play:

Little Murders has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues.

Little Murders is a full-length black comedy by Jules Feiffer. Carol Newquist sees the world going to hell and taking his children with it, until the family is forced to shoot back at bullets coming through their home, in Pulitzer-Prize Winning writer and cartoonist Jules Feiffer's absurdist comedy.

Little Murders is a black comedy about apathetic responses to violence. In a decayed and bullet-ridden New York City, the Newquist clan will stop at nothing to maintain their performance of the perfect American family. When perky, can-do daughter Patsy brings home Alfred – a strange, somber man and worse, her fiancée – they may finally be pushed over the edge. As their wedding day grows near, Alfred finds himself embroiled in an urban nightmare not the least of which is his fiancé's family, the possibility of marriage without Faith, muggings and a sniper's bullet. This darkest of dark comedies asks: how long can you keep a death grip on a world spiralling out of control?

Little Murders premiered in 1967 on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre. After a successful London production by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) at the Aldwych Theatre, the play reappeared in 1969 Off-Broadway and enjoyed a triumphant 400 performance run at Circle in the Square and won Jules Feiffer an Obie Award for Best Play. The play has been performed in regional, high school, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 2 female, 6 male

What people say:

"Jules Feiffer, a satirical sharpshooter with a deadly aim, stares balefully at the meaningless violence in American life, and opens fire on it in Little Murders. Devastatingly lethal in some of its coldly savage comic assaults." — New York Post

"Fantastically funny ... Little Murders is the darkest and perhaps the funniest comedy ever written about what it was like to be alive and half-crazed in the urban American jungle of the late 1960's." — New York Times

About the Playwright:

Jules Feiffer is an internationally acclaimed American cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter and author. His satirical outlook and probing wit have influenced several generations politically, sexually and socially. He has made an important and varied contribution to America's cultural life. His syndicated cartoon strip, for which he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, ran for forty years in The Village Voice. He has written more than thirty-five books, plays and film scripts, including the screenplay for Carnal Knowledge. He has received numerous awards and honours including an academy award for his short animated film Munro.