The Respectful Prostitute

Jean-Paul Sartre’s The Respectful Prostitute is the repellant and inspiring indictment of racial prejudice in America’s deep South told through the eyes of a prostitute who witnesses murder. Although it uses the foil of race, sex and class to tell the story – it is a black man who is murdered by a rich white man, and the latter’s family use their power to intimidate the white prostitute to comply with their requests – the play itself is also a meditation on our undeniable connection with one another; one that can be ignored only at the subjects own peril.