Last Request

About

Written approximately two years before his death in 2004, the play is a rare theatrical work by the Poet Laureate of the 1960s Puerto Rican revolutionary organization, the Young Lords. Last Request presents the story of a corpse discovered in the lobby of a pre-war Bronx apartment building in the 1950s by a young couple, an old couple, and a blind couple. Their reactions to his possessions trigger escalating chaos and revelations about their personal lives, becoming an exploration of morality, greed, dignity, and survival in mid-century urban life. Known for elevating street language, working-class experience, and collective memory in his poetry, Pedro Pietri was a foundational figure in the Nuyorican poetry movement. Presented at Teatro LATEA, a location that sustained experimental bilingual performance throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the production locates Pietri’s rarely staged theatrical work within the same cultural context that originally shaped his artistic voice.