In 1997 Suzan-Lori Parks made a casual remark to a friend that she wanted to write a riff on The Scarlet Letter and call it Fucking A. What she eventually produced was not one but two plays, both about a poor, illiterate woman named Hester who has been ill-treated by life. For the first time ever, they are being presented in tandem at Signature Theater.
C
In the first play written, In the Blood, Hester La Negrita (a strong Saycon Sengbloh; Eclipsed) is a woman with five bastard children by five different men, living with them underneath a bridge. As she struggles to get by, she is betrayed by all the people who should be helping her: The Welfare Lady (Jocelyn Bioh; An Octoroon), The Doctor (Frank Wood; Sideman, Can You Forgive Her?), her prostitute friend Amiga Gringa (Ana Reeder; The Big Knife), her first lover Chilli (Michael Braun; Everybody) and Reverend D. (Russell G. Jones; Father Comes Home from the Wars). Each gets a soliloquy to describe the nature of his or her betrayal of Hester. Unfortunately, the same actors must also play Hester’s children. Adults playing children is not a pretty sight. The letter A is important because it is as far as Hester got in her attempts to learn the alphabet. Eventually Hester snaps under the weight of her troubles and commits an act which is more shocking than surprising. The entire play seemed more than a bit schematic. The lack of subtlety in the writing is emphasized by the metaphorical set design by Louisa Thompson which features a curved slide of a back wall that no one can climb and a huge pipe that dumps trash from above. The costumes by Montana Levi Blanco are imaginative. Sarah Benson (An Octoroon) directed. Running time: two grim hours, no intermission.
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