Squabbles: A comedy in two acts

by Marshall Karp

A comedy for a cast of 4 men and 3 women. Perfect for summer or dinner theatres, this hilarious play pits a father in law against a mother in a comedic succession of squabbles. Jerry Sloan is a successful writer of advertising jingles married to an equally successful lawyer. Living with the happy couple is the not so happy Abe Dreyfus, Jerry's curmudgeon of a father in law. Abe is a funny guy to the audience, not to Jerry. The situation is exacerbated when Jerry's mother Mildred looses her house in a fire and needs a place to stay. Abe and Mildred can't stand each other. This play is one hilarious confrontation after another until the heart warming finale in which the oldsters discover that, really, each is not so bad.

Genres: Plays

110 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Marshall Karp is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, a TV and screenwriter, documentarian, and playwright. Working with James Patterson, Marshall cocreated and cowrote the NYPD Red series. After six bestsellers, Marshall has carried the series forward on his own, beginning with NYPD Red 7: The Murder Sorority. Marshall is also the author of Snowstorm in August, as well as the critically acclaimed Lomax and Biggs novels, featuring LAPD Detectives Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs. For over twenty years he has worked closely with the international charity Vitamin Angels, providing tens of millions of mothers and children around the globe with lifesaving vitamins and nutrients.

For more information, visit www.karpkills.com.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

THEATER SCRIPT: A delightful play in two acts. I've only started to be a Marshall Karp groupie and am reading as much as I can get my hands on (well - eyes and ears). It was written in 1982 and I immediately cast (in my head) Walter Malthau as "Abe". Mostly set in a parlour, the story itself has a predictability to the flow. Why I gave it 5 stars was the fact I was having fun reading it, not an easy feat anymore. It was similar to reading "On Golden Pond" and I would be laughing outloud at the dialogue It's a quick read, try it! PS I just realized that in each Karp effort, there is a character that I seem to either relate to or that I admire, or that I simply enjoy that character's humor. In this play, it would be"Jerry" but "Abe" got the best lines.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

An expecting couple find themselves hosting both her father and his mother under the same roof, and the two can't get along at all, making their children's lives a little hellish. This is a good piece of theater for some funny older actors.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny. I was behind the scenes. Think Hume Cronyn & Jessica Tandy. 1995

[Roger Briggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny and poignant...generational shifts/attitudes and family life on full display. Abe and Mildred are a crack-up but so typical.

[Tiffany Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun show with laughs and some tender moments - great material for a couple older actors; perfect for smaller theater companies. 4+ stars