About This Show

The Red Letter Plays, produced together for the first time, explode our ideas of love, society, sex, and power with wit and fearlessness. In these modern remixes of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel The Scarlet Letter, Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks conjures two distinct interpretations of Hester, American literature’s most famous adulteress.

In F**king A, Hester Smith, the revered and reviled local abortionist, hatches a plan to buy her jailed son’s freedom — and nothing will deter her from this quest. In this wild-eyed blend of story and song, directed by Obie Award winner Jo Bonney (Father Comes Home From the Wars), Hester’s branded letter A becomes a provocative emblem of vengeance, violence, and sacrifice.

In the Blood‘s Hester La Negrita is a penniless mother of five condemned by the men who love her. She turns to former lovers, friends, and the institutions meant to support her, only to be spurned by them all with devastating consequences. This new production is directed by Obie winner Sarah Benson (An Octoroon).

Together these two plays form a haunting and powerful indictment of the way we live now.

Show Details

Dates: First Preview: August 22, 2017 Final Performance: October 8, 2017

TheaterMania Review

| | September 11, 2017
Suzan-Lori Parks’s variation on ”The Scarlet Letter” is revived at Signature Theatre.

You Might Also Like

Bringer of Doom

Performances begin: April 6, 2023

CALENDAR GIRLS

Performances begin: May 13, 2023

S.O.P.S. Short Play Festival 2023

Performances begin: August 18, 2023

A Night with Mr.Wonderful

Performances begin: April 28, 2023

Stone Soup

One Night Only: May 20, 2023

Like Father, Like Salt

Performances begin: July 6, 2023

The Woman in the Waves

Performances begin: March 25, 2023

King of Nothing

Performances begin: May 31, 2023

Dark Disabled Stories

Final performance: April 9, 2023

?!: New Works 2023 – Night 1

One Night Only: April 5, 2023

?!: New Works 2023 – Night 2

One Night Only: April 6, 2023

?!: New Works 2023 – Night 4

One Night Only: April 8, 2023

?!: New Works 2023 – Night 5

One Night Only: April 9, 2023

?!: New Works 2023 – Night 6

One Night Only: April 12, 2023

?!: New Works 2023 – Night 7

One Night Only: April 13, 2023

?!: New Works 2023 – Night 8

One Night Only: April 14, 2023

?!: New Works 2023 – Night 9

One Night Only: April 15, 2023

?!: New Works 2023 – Night 10

One Night Only: April 16, 2023

?!: New Works 2023 – Night 11

One Night Only: April 18, 2023

?!: New Works 2023 – Night 12

One Night Only: April 19, 2023

?!: New Works 2023 – Night 13

One Night Only: April 20, 2023

?!: New Works 2023 – Night 14

One Night Only: April 21, 2023

?!: New Works 2023 – Night 15

One Night Only: April 22, 2023