A Rat's Mass

The play was written in 1967, during the civil rights movement. 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. I had never tried to do something like this. In a way, I just wanted to turn around and go back. I had this dream in which I was being pursued by red, bloodied rats. It was a very powerful dream, and when I woke up the train had stopped in the Alps. It was at night. I had never felt that way. It was a crucial night in my life. So, I was just haunted by that image for years, about being pursued by these big, red rats."^[10]

Kennedy was inspired by the black experience in the United States, and A Rat's Mass, along with most of her work, deals with the dichotomy between blacks and whites in America.^[11] The struggle for power and identity is the main focus of this play, because it was a main focuses of the African American community at that time.^[12] A scholar wrote, "Her writing is in many ways an expression of her psychological frustrations. These frustrations often deal with cultural conflicts stemming from her experiences as a black woman and her international travels to Europe and Africa. She is also known for extensive use of symbols and metaphors to convey a deeper message to her audience. She draws on her own experiences as well as those of her friends and families to create rich characters and vivid story lines."^[13]

On August 17, 1969, A Rat's Mass / Procession in Shout was performed at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club.^[14] This version featured music by Lamar Alford. La MaMa then took the show to London's Royal Court Theatre, where it was met with a positive response.

A Rat's Mass was produced at La MaMa multiple times during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Mary Alice performed as Sister Rat in the September^[15] and October 1969^[16] productions and the January 1971^[17] production.

In 1976, La MaMa's Annex performed the show with music by Cecil Taylor.^[18] A New York Times review wrote that the "plangency of the music echoes the doom-filled sentences of the text."^[19]