Susan Glaspell’s Trifles has often been cited as an example of a perfectly structured one-act play that, rather than lull an audience into the self-satisfied complacency produced by most Broadway offerings, teaches us to question what seem to be foregone conclusions. Did the suspect commit the crime? Is the suspect guilty? Ever since its first performance on the wharf in Provincetown, Cape Cod on 8 August 1916 Trifles has been anthologized and performed all over America, particularly by Little Theatres and amateur groups. As from the seventies, it has been taken up internationally by the Women’s Movement as a play that embodies the lack of communication between men and women and argues for the bonding of women

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Published 18 November 2005

Citation: Ozieblo, Barbara. "Trifles". The Literary Encyclopedia. 18 November 2005.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=15992, accessed 20 November 2009.]