Signature Theatre celebrated the opening night of Suzan-Lori Parks’ Fucking A September 11; the play is one of two of her Red Letter Plays, a riff on The Scarlet Letter, currently being revived at the Off-Broadway theatre. The Pulitzer Prize winner’s second play, In The Blood, will officially open September 17.
Both plays by Parks reimagine the character of Hester from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel The Scarlet Letter. In Fucking A, Hester Smith is a revered and reviled abortionist, desperate to free her son from prison.
Directed by Obie Award winner Jo Bonney, Fucking A began previews August 22 is scheduled to run through October 1 in The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre.
The cast is made up of J. Cameron Barnett (The Emperor Jones), Tony Award nominee Brandon Victor Dixon (Hamilton), Ben Horner (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time), Theatre World Award winner Joaquina Kalukango (The Color Purple), Tony Award nominee Marc Kudisch (The Wayside Motor Inn), Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner Christine Lahti (Chicago Hope), Ruibo Qian (Bull in a China Shop), Drama Desk Award nominee Elizabeth Stanley (On the Town), and Raphael Nash Thompson (Pericles).
Read reviews for the production:
The Hollywood Reporter (Frank Scheck)
The New York Times (Ben Brantley)
New York Magazine / Vulture (Sara Holdren)
Playbill will continue to update with reviews as they are published. Flip through photos from the show, and from opening night, below:
Fucking A is running simultaneously with Parks’ In the Blood, which began previews August 29 in The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre. The second play, directed by Sarah Benson, introduces us to Hester La Negrita, a penniless mother of five condemned by the men who love her.
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