In the Blood (review)

In The Blood. By Suzan-Lori Parks. The Joseph Papp Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival, New York, New York. 12 December 1999.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter provided the basis for Suzan-Lori Parks' new play, In the Blood. Like Hawthorne's protagonist, Parks' Hester is made to suffer in a society that has no sympathy for adulterers. Hester, played stunningly well by Charlayne Woodard, is a homeless mother attempting to find income to feed her helpless offspring. Exploited by friends and those in a system that should help her, Hester and her children seek shelter underneath a bridge. However, despite her condition, Hester never loses hope; she calls her five children her "treasures," admirably suggesting that human beings have more value than money.

This two-act play is somewhat of a departure for Parks in that she utilizes realistic settings and psychological characterizations. Still, the play's structure makes use of nonrealistic devices, shaped around nine scenes and six "confessions." Under the glare of a white spotlight each adult character interrupts the realistic flow of the action and occasions a "confession." Also in this production, each actor doubles both as an adult and one of Hester's children.

The play's action is carried by Hester's attempt to support her children. She works piecemeal, living off welfare and what she can beg; however, her principal longing is for human contact. Loneliness and hunger drive her as she seeks kindness and sustenance. In the course of the action she encounters a pill-popping doctor who exploits her sexually; another "friend," Amiga Gringa, steals from Hester every chance she gets; and then there is the Reverend who uses her for sex while upholding the pretense of caring for the poor. Worse yet, a welfare bureaucrat compounds acts of condescension toward Hester with expressions of superiority, and a former lover, Chilli, returns to marry Hester, but reneges when he finds how many children she has. Despite these humiliations, Hester retains a sense of dignity.

Parks uses language imaginatively and with effect. The play is rich with linguistic turns, such as "higher-ups," that are illustrative of a vertical imagery symbolizing Hester's social condition. Like the play's lowly environment beneath the bridge, Hester uses language symbolizing her life beneath, below, and beyond the gaze of society. Parks draws a vertical arrangement, juxtaposing those who have benefited from rising economic gains and those left below, by using the rhetoric of "up," "down," "leg-up," etc. The vertical symbols subtly placed in the dialogue resonate in the physical gestures of the protagonist as well. Hidden in the floor of the stage is a pair of white slippers Hester "buried." On one occasion Woodard held them up high in the air and then to her heart, hoping for an occasion when she could put them to use. The gesture captured her desire to rise above and experience relief from her lowly condition. [Begin Page 567]

Woodard's performance of Hester was remarkable. She is an actress possessing depth, nuance, and power. She conveyed the sort of naiveté one encounters among believers in human kindness, while at the same time she displayed knowledge of street life that limited such innocence. Her performance captured both the savvy and des-peration of one caught in the cycle of poverty. Despite her misfortune, she allowed Hester dignity and grace with great effectiveness. No matter what, she resisted being consumed by her circumstances.

Unfortunately, Woodard received support from neither the ensemble nor the director. The five actors performed little better than sophomores in character study. As children, they appeared clownish. The costumes added to this effect, with oversized and gaudily colored outfits befitting circus performers. The writing and directing lent little support here. The children, for example, were curiously lacking in street smarts. Given their poverty and the dangers these urchins faced, one would have expected some of them to have garnered at least a modicum of street savvy. Yet they were all portrayed as inept and...