The American Century Theater has dusted off Jules Feiffer's late 1960s cult classic and it's alive and kicking.  Whether you are revisiting Little Murders from the past or know it from the 1971 movie, the cartoonish characters of Mr. Feiffer's world still have plenty to say.  Director Ellen Dempsey's absurdist production feels like a dark comedy wrapped in a farce, say The Homecoming meets Rhinoceros.  Before it's over, roles will shift, values change, and everyone will be corrupted.  As the title implies, small acts lead to some big consequences. It's "a concrete jungle" out there. 

Attraction and repulsion of opposites serve as the backdrop for the fractured fairy tale of "Boy meets girl's parents." A clash between competing and extreme worldviews - the ultimate individual ("I'm an apathist") Alfred Chamberlain (given a bipolar turn by James Finley) engages with daughter Patsy (a comedic Robin Covington) and the Newquist clan, in their best survivalist mode.   Family dynamics anchor the subtext - sourpuss dad (the excellent Craig Miller), cheery and wound-tight mom (the subtly forceful Emily Morrison), and gender-shifting son (a fluid Evan Crump) who feels the call of nature pulling from many directions.   Everyone's pinned their hopes on a feisty first daughter who's got her own take on the ideal husband - for her. 

There's a big monologue for just about everyone, in service to his or her narcissistic self and/or the author as he holds up for view, and dismantles, one institution after another.  (Conspiracy theories and paranoia consort with random acts of escalating violence, the causal connection lacking.)  These work best for the secondary characters that are called on to pick up the action which seems caught at times in its own parody and cliché.  Steve Lebens gives a Billy Crystal take on Judge Stern and is a study as the delusional Lt. Practice.  But Bill Gordon delightfully personifies New Age Tolerance (read: charlatanism) as he delivers each and every nuance of the playwright's dark analysis of religion and matrimony.    

The tone shifts abruptly in Act II as Patsy is legally disengaged from the family unit and starts fighting for something of her own.  Later, her absence will serve as the focal point of both Alfred's transformation and the Newquist family's last stand.  (The send-up of modern art in general and Warhol and Pop in particular as Alfred seeks to decompose reality is priceless, the dots still with us in Damian Hirst's series.)  By the finale, the group holds sway; and one defense mechanism has replaced another.  You'll feel a tad uncomfortable about the price of freedom, at least in this world, as Dad exhorts his charges. 

TACT's panoramic staging designed by Patrick Lord permits homey access into the Newquist mindset and allows for some creative blocking by Ms. Dempsey and company.  The costumes of Rip Claassen are a `60s psychedelic sight from paisley and flower print to bell bottoms, beads, and boots all shown to good effect by Liz Replogle's lighting.  Ed Moser's integration of sound design to create the outside world and inner mood of the play continues to impress.   

As bullets rain out and the chamber clears on this ritualistic horror show, all that's left is a final family meal.  "Come `an get it!"

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Applause meter: Recommended.  Runtime: About 2 hours with intermission.

© John F. Glass, January 19, 2012