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Introduction

Trifles is a one-act play by Susan Glaspell. Her short story, "A Jury of Her Peers", was adapted from the play a year after its debut. It was first performed by the Provincetown Players at the Wharf Theatre in Provincetown, Massachusetts on August 8, 1916. It is loosely based on the murder of John Hossack, which Glaspell covered while working as a news journalist for the Daily News.

Today Trifles is seen as an example of early feminist drama, because two female characters are able to solve a mystery that the male characters cannot, aided by their knowledge of women's psychology. It is frequently anthologized in American literature textbooks. The female characters find a dead canary that was murdered the in same way as the dead man, thus leading them to the conclusion that the owner of the sewing kit they found the dead canary in (the dead man's wife) was the murderer.