In Fucking A, Hester Smith, the revered and reviled local abortionist, hatches a plan to buy her jailed son’s freedom—and nothing will deter Hester from her 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.

If you are convinced society has progressed beyond Nathaniel Hawthorne’s vision in The Scarlet Letter, Suzan-Lori Parks has an offering to prove otherwise: Fucking A. In the program notes for the Signature Theatre’s revival production, Parks admits she hadn’t read the novel when she set out to write Fucking A, and that this is more of a “riff” than a retelling: “Like a contrafact, if you know jazz. You take the chords and you write your own melody.” Regardless of Parks’s initial familiarity with the novel, what results on stage is a staggering work of expert storytelling and captivating performances brought to life by Jo Bonney’s direction. In this “small town in a small country in the middle of nowhere” is Hester Smith (Christine Lahti), the local abortionist, both relied upon and ostracized by the town for her services. She’s the keeper of their secrets, and her mark “A” is the reminder of her profession –Abortionist — and a projection of the town’s hypocrisy. Her closest friend is Canary Mary (Joaquina Kalukango), the whore turned kept woman of the Mayor (Marc Kudisch), who blames his wife, The First Lady (Elizabeth Stanley), for her inability to get pregnant. Mary and Hester’ …Read more