A Rat's Mass is a poetic, magical-realist one-act play written in 1967 by African-American playwright Adrienne Kennedy.
[1][2][3] The play portrays the negative aspects of the black experience in the United States by depicting two African-American children longing for a white child.
A 1969 New York Times review stated: "The action is nothing but Brother and Sister Rat equating their love for each other with their former adoration for Rosemary - the white and beautiful 'descendant of the Pope and Julius Caesar and the Virgin Mary'.
Kennedy stated that the characters were taken from a vivid dream she had[9] when she was on a train with her seven-year-old son from Paris to Rome, where she was moving for a few months: "It was a very difficult thing for me to do because I'm not really that adventurous.
These frustrations often deal with cultural conflicts stemming from her experiences as a black woman and her international travels to Europe and Africa.
"[13] On August 17, 1969, A Rat's Mass / Procession in Shout was performed at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club.