The Masses are Asses

This hilarious play, written by noted Nuyorican playwright and poet Pedro Pietri, takes place in an empty room (or perhaps in a fancy restaurant). Its two characters trade audience and readers on a dizzying spin through language as they vamp, imitate, and taunt one another and the social values associated with the different "classes." Pietri's play is serious in its political parody, but it's also great fun. Performed in 1974 at Miriam Colon's Puerto Rican Travelling Theatre in Manhattan, The Masses Are Asses reminds one, at times, of a work of the Theater of Cruelty wedded to a Punch and Judy show-all whipped up in the frenzy of a campy parody of American social aspirations.