This week we open Suzan-Lori Parks’ challenging and powerful piece, Fucking A.
Parks’ otherworldly adaptation of The Scarlet Letter reimagines Nathaniel Hawthorne’s tragic tale of an exiled adulteress. Hester Smith—branded A for Abortionist—plies her trade in order to regain a life she’s lost. D.C. Theatre Scenecalled the play “mythically powerful.” Parks’ is a master of harnessing language and music in a way that lets her stories land in the deep parts of your brain, and that talent is on full display here.
This play feels so tuned to this particular moment in time. It’s about the rawness and danger that we may perceive to be sitting on the margins of our society, but that could flare up and seep into our daily lives at any moment. Malika says, “it’s an American story—Suzan-Lori has written the DNA of America into Fucking A.”
Many of you are probably familiar with Malika’s work, either from here at UW, or out in the community. You might have seen her production of BOOTYCANDY last year at Intiman, which City Arts Magazine called “seamless and fearless.”
Visit drama.uw.edu for more information and to purchase tickets.