 The play concerns the private life of "Candy" Delaney, a successful interior decorator and landlord who is also transgender.It was first performed by the Shakespeare Theatre Company on April 22, 2004, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

"The Mutilated" was written in 1966, and debuted as part of a double-bill of one-act plays written by Williams titled "Slapstick Tragedy" (the other one-act was "The Gnädiges Fräulein".