Little Wars

By Steven Carl McCasland

A dinner party during the Second World War unites celebrated writers Agatha Christie, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas – with a mysterious guest.

With copious booze flowing, acid-tongued barbs flying, and the threat of global conflict looming, the guests – and the world around them – are close to boiling point. Everyone has a confession. Someone has a secret.

Set in the French Alps in 1940, Steven Carl McCasland’s Little Wars is an enthralling, entertaining and ultimately moving portrait of seven exceptional women – and a thrilling fiction based on truth.

It was workshopped Off-Off-Broadway, first performed in 2015, and received an acclaimed digital premiere in 2020, featuring Linda Bassett, Sarah Solemani, Juliet Stevenson and Sophie Thompson. It provides glorious opportunities for an all-female cast to play some of the greatest literary figures of the twentieth century.

'A high concept play with a lightness of touch... the discussions about collective responsibility, individual action or inaction in the face of moral wrongdoing, and the question of whether to stay silent or speak out, are deeply resonant'Guardian

'The script is smart and witty... admirably bold and asks big questions'The Stage

'Extraordinary and vibrant... a pertinent play about refuge, safety, hiding, women, survival and love'BritishTheatre.com

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Apr 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9781788503792

Steven Carl McCasland

Steven Carl McCasland is the founder and Artistic Director of the Beautiful Soup Theater Collective. A Pace University graduate, Steven’s critically acclaimed plays have been seen in New York and Bermuda. In 2009, Steven was commissioned to adapt poet Jack Wiler’s anthologies into a solo performance about Wiler’s struggle with HIV. That play, Fun Being Me, was workshopped with Jack in the title role before his passing in 2009. Steven’s other plays include When I’m 64, Hope & Glory, Opheliacs Anonymous, Blue, Pulchritudinous (First Place, Huntington Award in Playwriting), and Billy Learns About Captain Kirk have all received productions regionally and in Manhattan. In June 2011, Steven premiered his original adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Setting Wonderland in the heart of Paris, he also directed and was featured in the cast as the Mock Turtle. After its one-week workshop, Alice Au Pays Des Merveilles was picked up for an extended run at the SoHo Playhouse through September. His acclaimed play neat & tidy made a splash on the Bowery in May of 2012, with critics hailing McCasland as a new Thornton Wilder and the play as one of the top dramatic plays of the year. After critically acclaimed workshops of Steven’s plays and What Was Lost in 2014, Beautiful Soup partnered with the Clarion Theatre to present five of his plays in repertory in 2015. Also featured in rep were 28 Marchant Avenue, Der Kanarienvogel (The Canary) and a revival of neat & tidy. His writing has been acclaimed by New York critics as ‘brilliant’, ‘riveting’, ‘mesmerising’ and ‘extraordinary’.