The performance was part of a concert staged by the Dance Repertory Theatre, a group that included dancer/choreographers Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman and Helen Tamiris.
The biting portrait of the Pessimist and subtle portrayal of the Optimist were intended as symbols of all the tragedy and comedy in the world.
"Here the artist's own costuming - horizontal stripes for the former, billowing black taffeta, with a large red property handkerchief, for the latter, are punctuation marks.
"[6] The New York Herald Tribune noted the work displayed "the Graham art at its scintillating best, both penetrating and disarming."
In 1932, The New York Sun reported the work was "invalidated by its obvious humor...Miss Graham seems incapable of stylizing this aspect of herself intruding a note of ineffectiveness into the general excellence of what she does.