Little Murders presented by American Century Theater at Gunston Arts Center

Little Murders

Gunston Arts Center
2700 S. Lang Street Arlington

Little Murders focuses on the violence that encircles and engulfs a New York City family. The action centers on daughter Patsy and Alfred, the new man she brings home to introduce to her parents and brother. It’s a world where the sound of gunshots is de rigueur, heavy breathers regularly call, unseen visitors knock at the door….. and the Newquists are just trying to have a nice day. Meanwhile, Alfred has chosen not to fight back, something that Patsy is desperate to change. The epidemic of violence in 1960s New York and a citizen’s choice to sink or swim form the basis for the dark comedy at the heart of Little Murders.

Presented by American Century Theater

Thru - Feb 11, 2012

Show Type: Drama

Running Time: 2 hrs with 1 intermission

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Little Murders Reviews

Average Rating based on 6 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

Washington Examiner - Recommended

"... Director Ellen Dempsey fortunately steers the production away from too realistic a portrayal of the Newquists, Marjorie and her husband, Carol, and their children Patsy and Kenny, though she could have taken the production even further from reality."

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- Barbara Mackay

MetroWeekly - Recommended

"... And so there is a little unevenness here and a few moments when even the excellent Craig Miller cannot completely carry the moment. But far more often, and certainly overall, TACT delivers on Feiffer's clever and amusing fantasy of an urban middle-class meltdown."

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- Kate Wingfield

Talkin Broadway - Recommended

"...Feiffer's play raises the question of the appropriate way to cope with an intolerable situation: are the only choices to ignore the despair of other people or to become as amoral and violent as the worst of them? In 2012, partisans may join the Tea Party or the Occupy movement, but a lot of people have found another way to opt out, anesthetizing themselves with their digital and electronic toys. The role of women and gays in society also has changed extensively since 1967; Kenny flounces and pouts but never talks about his sexuality, and Patsy states that, before meeting Alfred, she fell in love with gay men expressly to "change" them. Also, the residents of Feiffer's world are exclusively white and middle-class."

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- Susan Berlin

Washingtonian - Recommended

"... There’s something cathartic about seeing a dysfunctional family act out their foibles onstage (versus watching it happen in your parents’ living room). However acrimonius your own clan’s antics may be, they’re unlikely to give much competition to the Newquists, the frustrating, funny, and flawed family at the center of Jules Feiffer’s Little Murders, currently playing at American Century Theater."

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- Missy Frederick

MD Theatre Guide - Somewhat Recommended

"... If you love dark comedy and are dying for one of those murder mysteries about a dysfunctional family and are ‘paned’ to find out who did it and why, come see the hard-working cast try to figure it all out in Little Murders at American Century Theater."

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- Mariya Danilenko

DCTheatreScene - Recommended

Set amidst the time of the decline and fall of America’s largest city, not to mention the Vietnam War, the Great Society, and political assassinations that seemed at the time to never end, this manic, darkly comic production brings back the kind of nostalgia that most Americans who lived through those times would probably rather not have.

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- Terry Ponick

Little Murders presented by American Century Theater at Gunston Arts Center

Little Murders

Little Murders Reviews

Washington Examiner - Recommended

MetroWeekly - Recommended

Talkin Broadway - Recommended

Washingtonian - Recommended

MD Theatre Guide - Somewhat Recommended

DCTheatreScene - Recommended

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