About the Play:

Rats is a one-act drama by Israel Horovitz. An excellent example of experimental theatre, Rats was featured work in Off-Broadway's omnibus of a dozen short plays by promising dramatists entitled Collision Course. This highly original, often comic, and ultimately shattering play comprises a parable for our time in its portrayal of two "rats" who fight for survival and control in a baby's crib in a Harlem apartment. The lessons learned apply to all of us in the hectic cutthroat world of today.

Rats takes us to an oversized nursery in a Harlem tenement. In the words of American critic, columnist and author Martin Gottfried: "The story is about two rats. One has control over a rich hunting ground in New York City and the other has come down from Greenwich, Connecticut, looking for an in. The power rat is reluctant to let anybody into his domain but his visitor is convincing and talks his way in, until an infant child makes his appearance. Then the country rat wants his bite, the city rat is revealed as kindhearted and they fight over the screaming baby. It is a hideously powerful conclusion to a fascinating and comic play. The play's fascination, though, is more with its treatment of rats as souls. Mr. Horovitz is not simply dealing with sewer rats in the city. He is also dealing with people-rats in their conniving for position (a subject which he has artfully treated before). The play moves from very funny parallels with social status to very grisly parallels with greed. It is superb and Horovitz has quickly established himself as a playwright of smooth technique, serious intent and great imagination."

Rats was first presented in 1968 as the final piece in an anthology production of a dozen short plays on one off-Broadway program entitled Collision Course at the legendary Greenwich Village venue Cafe Au Go Go that hosted such up-and-coming acts such as Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, George Carlin, Lily Tomlin, and more. The production, which also included works by Lanford Wilson, Robert Patrick, Jules Feiffer, Leonard Melfi, Terrence McNally, and Jean Claude van Itallie, transferred to the historic Actors Playhouse off-Broadway in New York City.

Cast: 7 women, 2 men

What people say:

"This story of the rats is rough, tough, funny and moving, and both Mr. Horovitz's considerable skill and dramatic originality are again outstanding." — New York Times

"…(a) superior play." — Women's Wear Daily

"…uncommonly interesting." — Village Voice

About the Playwright:

Israel Horovitz (1939-2020) was an American playwright, director, and actor who first made a splash in the winter of 1967-68, with four critically acclaimed plays produced Off Broadway. Since then, nearly 70 Horovitz plays have been performed throughout the USA, and dozens have been translated and performed in as many as 25 languages, worldwide. He won numerous awards, including the OBIE (twice), the Emmy, Priz du Plaisir de theatre (for Line In Paris), Prix du Jury (Cannes Film Festival), the New York Drama Desk Award, and Award in Literature of The American Academy of Arts and Letters, The Eliot Norton Prize, and many others.