FED UP begins in 1972 on the day of the election between Nixon and McGovern. One day later an embittered and very unpopular math professor is bludgeoned to death by one of his Ph.D. students. Then the play jumps ahead to 1976 when the professor’s 25year-old daughter and her boyfriend go on a car trip to try to find her former college roommate. Their search eventually ends up at the Cosmic Spirit Retreat, a creepy cult on Blizzard Island.
FED UP is a great ride, both as a satire of cults and as a mystery thriller. As well, it’s a rom-com with whip-smart dialog anchored by endearing, relatable characters. --Erica Abeel novelist. THE COMMUNE and WILD GIRLS soon to be an audio book.
FED UP presents us with a wide array of unusual characters: a dog with self-esteem issues, a crusty and much unbeloved math professor, a raving lunatic leading a religious cult, and his amoral Apostles to name but a few. But there’s also a seemingly ill-matched young couple (the professor’s earnest daughter and her junior faculty jokester of a boyfriend) whose delightful banter provides the heart and soul of a cast otherwise full of nutjobs. Fed Up is an exuberant farce with surprisingly serious undercurrents. Read it in the vivid theater of your imagination. --Jonathan Strong, novelist. ENDPAPERS and FOUR LAST SONGS
Julien Hennefeld, Brooklyn College Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, was a math major at Harvard, and has also taught at MIT, Boston College and Stanford. Since retiring, he has turned to writing political satire for LA Progressive as well as producing absurdist dramas including, Yiddish Hack, a YouTube video that offers an intiguing perspective on artificial intelligence and psychotherapy.
