Short Eyes

The first play written by a Puerto Rican to be performed on Broadway, American playwright Miguel Pinero’s dramatic play Short Eyes (1974) concerns a middle-class white man who enters a predominantly Black and Latino prison after being accused of child molestation. The title comes from a mishearing of the term "short heist," a prison slang signifier for child molestation. Pinero wrote the play while incarcerated at Sing Sing prison in New York for second-degree armed robbery. When he debuted the play at the prison as part of an inmate playwriting workshop, New York Times theater critic Mel Gussow attended the performance and wrote a glowing review of it. After receiving parole from Sing Sing, Pinero presented Short Eyes at the Riverside Church in Morningside Heights; from there, the play transferred to Off-Broadway and then Broadway over the course of 1974. Nominated for six Tony Awards, Short Eyes received the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and the Obie Award for "best play of the year." In 1977, the play was adapted into a film directed by Robert M. Young.

Before the central plot is set in motion, Pinero introduces the main characters at an unnamed detention facility in New York and their complex and precarious relationships with one another. The inmates' unofficial leader is Juan Otero. In his thirties, Juan is one of the older inmates and universally respected. El Raheem is a Black Muslim who encourages his fellow inmates to study the teachings of Islam. Cupcakes is a twenty-one-year-old Puerto Rican described as a "pretty boy" who attracts attention both wanted and unwanted from various inmates. One of the inmates who wish to prey on Cupcakes is Paco, a Puerto Rican drug addict. Ice is a quick-tempered African-American man in his twenties, and Omar is an African-American amateur boxer who doesn't seek out violence but will dole it out if his honor or status is challenged. Finally, Longshoe is an Irishman in his thirties and the only white man who has gained the respect of the other characters.

Through a series of conversations, the play depicts the prisoners' complicated attitudes toward their dominant authority figure, the prison guard Mr. Nett. Although firm and tough, Mr. Nett seems to enjoy the company of the inmates far more than his superior officer, Captain Allard. Early on, Omar asks Mr. Nett for a more favorable work position in the prison. When Mr. Nett refuses, Omar accuses him of unfairly holding ill will toward him. Mr. Nett reminds Omar of the repeated physical altercations that he has been involved in since his arrival. Nevertheless, Mr. Nett is willing to consider Omar's request if he promises not to engage in any more fighting. Omar refuses to make that promise, telling Mr. Nett, "My word is bond."



The prison environment is thrown into turmoil with the arrival of Clark Davis, a middle-class white man in his twenties accused of raping an underage girl and sent to the detention facility while awaiting trial. His fellow inmates, most of who are black or Latino, immediately turn on Clark. Within the prison ecosystem, child molesters are considered the lowest form of inmate; they refer to Clark's crime as "short heist" which, when pronounced by the Puerto Rican characters, sounds like "short eyes" because they drop the "h" in "heist."
The elder statesman, Juan, is the only inmate who has any sympathy for Clark. Having developed a rapport with one another, Clark reveals to Juan that while he does not remember raping the girl in question, he has raped other underage girls.

As tensions intensify between the inmates, it becomes known that the police's case against Clark is falling apart. Due to a lack of evidence, Clark is likely to be released. Juan is immensely torn about whether to inform the authorities of Clark's admission of past sex crimes. On one hand, Juan is extremely reluctant to break the prison code of "snitching," even on a man who committed the most heinous of crimes. Moreover, a creature of empathy, Juan can't help feeling pity for Clark. On the other hand, Juan is certain that, if released, Clark will "scar up some more little girls' minds." Before Juan makes up his mind, however, the rest of the inmates corner Clark and murder him.

Short Eyes is a gripping morality tale set against the tough squalor of New York's prison system in the 1970s.