The Proprietor

Assassins includes characters who represent concepts. The Proprietor represents our country, run amok with violence, dissent, the refusal to understand complicated issues, and the adulation of wackos. We live in a country where the public applauds criminals whose crimes are strange enough to get them on the talk shows, where fame is happily bestowed on people who commit bizarre, violent acts against their spouses or stack up dead bodies in their cellar. The Proprietor is the personification of this upside-down world of ours, where we give disturbed individuals guns while we make sure they can’t achieve the rewards we’ve taught them to expect. They learn that committing a crime in a very public way is an easy path to fame and fortune. In the opening scene of Assassins, the Proprietor preys on each character’s individual insecurities, then offers them the one sure way to realize the American Dream – killing the president.

The Proprietor is a literal embodiment of the insanity of our modern world, a full blown – yet terribly seductive – psychopath. And as with many psychopaths, you can’t see it in him. Imagine all the rage, ambition, want, and resourcefulness of America all stuffed into one person. Frightening though he may be, the assassins find his messages enticing and his promises impossible to ignore.

-http://www.newlinetheatre.com/assassins.html

-Thanks to ABDIEL