The Red Letter Plays is copyright © 2001 Suzan-Lori Parks
In the Blood is copyright © 1998, 2001 Suzan-Lori Parks
Fucking A is copyright © 2000, 2001 Suzan-Lori Parks
The Red Letter Plays is published by Theatre Communications Group, Inc., 520 8th Ave., New York, NY 10018–4156.
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Music and lyrics are copyright © 2001 by Suzan-Lori Parks.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Parks, Suzan-Lori.
The red letter plays / Suzan-Lori Parks.— 1st ed.
p. cm.
Contents: In the blood — Fucking A.
eISBN 978-1-55936-737-0
1. Afro-American women—Drama. 2. Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804–1864—Adaptations.
I. Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804–1864. Scarlet letter. II Title.
PS3566.A736 R442000
812’.54—dc21 00-046679
Cover photo of Charlayne Woodard by Martha Swope
Cover design by Pentagram
Text design and composition by Lisa Govan
First Edition, July 2001
Thanks 2
Terry Nemeth @ TCG Books
George C. Wolfe and The Posse @ The Public
Kathy Sova
Liz Diamond
David Esbjornson
Loris Bradley, Jason Nodler & IBP
Emily Morse
Dare Clubb
Tony Kushner
John Dias
Bonnie Metzgar
Stephanie Parks
Paul Oscher
4
handholding
cheerleading
loving
& lighthousing
Contents
Thanks 2
Author’s Elements of Style
In the Blood
Production History
Characters
Author’s Note
Prologue
SCENE 1: Under the Bridge
SCENE 2: Street Practice
SCENE 3: The Reverend on His Soapbox
SCENE 4: With the Welfare
SCENE 5: Small Change and Sandwiches
SCENE 6: The Reverend on the Rock
SCENE 7: My Song in the Street
SCENE 8: The Hand of Fate
SCENE 9: The Prison Door
Fucking A
Production History
Characters
Author’s Note
PART ONE
SCENE 1
SCENE 2
SCENE 3
SCENE 4
SCENE 5
SCENE 6
SCENE 7
SCENE 8
SCENE 9
SCENE 10
SCENE 11
SCENE 12
PART TWO
SCENE 13
SCENE 14
SCENE 15
SCENE 16
SCENE 17
SCENE 18
SCENE 19
TALK Translation
Author’s Elements of Style
I’m continuing the use of my slightly unconventional theatrical elements. Here’s a road map.
(Rest)
Take a little time, a pause, a breather; make a transition.
A Spell
An elongated and heightened (Rest). Denoted by repetition of figures’ names with no dialogue. Has sort of an architectural look:
Reverend D.
Hester
Reverend D.
Hester
This is a place where the figures experience their pure true simple state. While no action or stage business is necessary, directors should fill this moment as they best see fit.
[Brackets in the text indicate optional cuts for production.]
(Parentheses around dialogue indicate softly spoken passages ((asides; sotto voce)).
IN THE BLOOD
Production History
In the Blood premiered at The Joseph Papp Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival (George C. Wolfe, Producer; Rosemarie Tichler, Artistic Producer; Mark Litvin, Managing Director) in New York City in November 1999. It was directed by David Esbjornson; the set design was by Narelle Sissons; the lighting design was by Jane Cox; the sound design was by Don DiNicola; the costume design was by Elizabeth Hope Clancy; the production dramaturg was John Dias; and the production stage manager was Kristen Harris. The cast was as follows:
Hester, La Negrita
Charlayne Woodard
Chilli/Jabber
Rob Campbell
Reverend D. /Baby
Reggie Montgomery
The Welfare Lady/Bully
Gail Grate
The Doctor/Trouble
Bruce MacVittie
Amiga Gringa/Beauty
Deirdre O’Connell
Characters
Hester, La Negrita
Chilli/Jabber, her oldest son
Reverend D./Baby, her youngest son
The Welfare Lady/Bully, her oldest daughter
The Doctor/Trouble, her middle son
Amiga Gringa/Beauty, her youngest daughter
Place
Here
Time
Now
Author’s Note
This play requires a cast of six adult actors, five of whom double as adults and children. The setting should be spare, to reflect the poverty of the world of the play.
Prologue
All clustered together.
All
THERE SHE IS!
WHO DOES SHE THINK
SHE IS
THE NERVE SOME PEOPLE HAVE
SHOULDNT HAVE IT IF YOU CANT AFFORD IT
AND YOU KNOW SHE CANT
SHE DONT GOT NO SKILLS
CEPT ONE
CANT READ CANT WRITE
SHE MARRIED?
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
SHE OUGHTA BE MARRIED
THATS WHY THINGS ARE BAD LIKE THEY ARE
CAUSE OF
GIRLS LIKE THAT
THAT EVER HAPPEN TO ME YOU WOULDNT SEE ME HAVING IT
YOU WOULDNT SEE THAT HAPPENING TO ME
WHO THE HELL SHE THINK SHE IS
AND NOW WE GOT TO PAY FOR IT
THE NERVE
SOME PEOPLE HAVE
BAD LUCK
SHE OUGHTA GET MARRIED
TO WHO?
THIS AINT THE FIRST TIME THIS HAS HAPPENED TO HER
NO?
THIS IS HER FIFTH
FIFTH?
SHE GOT FIVE OF THEM
FIVE BRATS
AND NOT ONE OF THEM GOT A DADDY
PAH!
They spit.
WHOS THE DADDY?
SHE WONT TELL
SHE WONT TELL CAUSE SHE DONT KNOW
SHE KNOWS
NO SHE DONT
HOW COULD A GIRL NOT KNOW
WHEN YOU HAD SO MUCH ACTION YOU LOSE A FRACTION
OF YR GOOD SENSE
THE PART OF MEN SHE SEES ALL LOOK THE SAME ANYWAY
WATCH YR MOUTH
I DIDNT SAY NOTHING
YOU TALKING ALL NASTY AND THAT AINT RIGHT
THERES CHILDREN HERE
WHERES THE CHILDREN I DONT SEE NO CHILDREN
SHE MARRIED?
SHE AINT MARRIED
SHE DONT GOT NO SKILLS
CEPT ONE
CANT READ CANT WRITE
SHE MARRIED?
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
All
All
All
SHE KNOWS SHES A NO COUNT
SHIFTLESS
HOPELESS
BAD NEWS
BURDEN TO SOCIETY
HUSSY
SLUT
PAH!
They spit.
JUST PLAIN STUPID IF YOU ASK ME AINT NO SMART WOMAN GOT 5 BASTARDS
AND NOT A PENNY TO HER NAME
SOMETHINGS GOTTA BE DONE TO STOP THIS SORT OF THING
CAUSE I’LL BE DAMNED IF SHE GONNA LIVE OFF ME
HERE SHE COMES
MOVE ASIDE
WHAT SHE GOTS CATCHY
LET HER PASS
DONT GET CLOSE
YOU DONT WANNA LOOK LIKE YOU KNOW HER
STEP OFF!
They part like the Red Sea would.
Hester, La Negrita passes through them.
She holds a Newborn Baby in her arms.
All
IT WONT END WELL FOR HER
HOW YOU KNOW?
I GOT EYES DON’T I
BAD NEWS IN HER BLOOD
PLAIN AS DAY.
All
Hester
All
Hester lifts the child up, raising it toward the sky.
Hester
My treasure. My joy.
All
PAH!
They spit.
SCENE 1
Under the Bridge
Home under the bridge. The word “SLUT” scrawled on a wall. Hesters oldest child Jabber, 13, studies that scrawl. Hester lines up soda cans as her youngest child Baby, 2 years old, watches.
Hester
Zit uh good word or a bad word?
Jabber
Jabber
Hester
Aint like you to have yr mouth shut, Jabber. Say it to me and we can figure out the meaning together.
Jabber
Naaaa —
Hester
What I tell you bout saying “Naa” when you mean “no”? You talk like that people wont think you got no brains and Jabbers got brains. All my kids got brains, now.
(Rest)
Lookie here, Baby. Mamma set the cans for you. Mamma gonna show you how to make some money. Watch.
Jabber
Im slow.
Hester
Slow aint never stopped nothing, Jabber. You bring yr foot down on it and smash it flat. Howabout that, Baby? Put it in the pile and thats that. Now you try.
Baby jumps on the can smashing it flat, hollering as he smashes.
Baby
Ha!
Hester
Yr a natural! Jabber, yr little baby brothers a natural. We gonna come out on top this month, I can feel it. Try another one, Baby.
Jabber
They wrote it in yr practice place.
Hester
Yes they did.
Jabber
They wrote in yr practice place so you didnt practice today.
Hester
I practiced. In my head. In the air. In the dirt underfoot.
Jabber
Lets see.
With great difficulty Hester makes an “A” in the dirt.
Hester
The letter A.
Jabber
Almost.
Hester
You gonna disparage me I aint gonna practice.
Baby
Mommmmieee!
Hester
Gimmieuhminute, Baby-child.
Jabber
Legs apart hands crost the chest like I showd you. Try again.
Baby
Mommieee!
Hester
See the pretty can, Baby?
Baby
Ha!
Jabber
Try again.
Baby
Mommmieee!
Hester
Later. Read that word out to me, huh? I like it when you read to me.
Jabber
Dont wanna read it.
Hester
Cant or wont?
Jabber
—Cant.
Hester
Jabber
He knows what the word says, but he wont say it.
Hester
I was sick when I was carrying you. Damn you, slow fool. Aaah, my treasure, cmmeer. My oldest treasure.
Hester gives him a quick hug.
She looks at the word, its letters mysterious to her.
Baby smashes can after can.
Hester
Go scrub it off, then. I like my place clean.
Jabber dutifully scrubs the wall.
Hester
We know who writ it up there. It was them bad boys writing on my home. And in my practice place. Do they write on they own homes? I dont think so. They come under the bridge and write things they dont write nowhere else. A mean ugly word, I’ll bet. A word to hurt our feelings. And because we aint lucky we gotta live with it. 5 children I got. 5 treasures. 5 joys. But we aint got our leg up, just yet. So we gotta live with mean words and hurt feelings.
Jabber
Words dont hurt my feelings, Mamma.
Hester
Dont disagree with me.
Jabber
Sticks and stones, Mamma.
Hester
Yeah. I guess.
(Rest)
Too late for yr sisters and brother to still be out. Yr little brother Babys gonna make us rich. He learns quick. Look at him go.
Hester lines up more cans and Baby jumps on them, smashing them all. Bully, her 12-year-old girl, runs in.
Bully
Mommieeeeeeeee! Mommie, Trouble he has really done it this time. I told him he was gonna be doing life and he laughed and then I said he was gonna get the electric chair and you know what he said?
Hester
Help me sack the cans.
Bully
He said a bad word!
Hester
Sack the cans.
They sack the crushed cans.
Bully
Trouble he said something really bad but Im not saying it cause if I do yll wash my mouth. What he said was bad but what he did, what he did was worse.
Hester
Whatd he do?
Bully
Stole something.
Hester
Food?
Bully
No.
Hester
Toys?
Bully
No.
Hester
I dont like youall stealing toys and I dont like youall stealing food but it happens. I wont punish you for it. Yr just kids. Trouble thinks with his stomach. He hungry he takes, sees a toy, gotta have it.
Bully
A policeman saw him steal and ran after him but Trouble ran faster cause the policeman was fat.
Hester
Policeman chased him?
Bully
He had a big stomach. Like he was pregnant. He was jiggling and running and yelling and red in the face.
Hester
What he steal?
Bully
—Nothing.
Hester
&nb
sp; You talk that much and you better keep talking, Miss.
Bully buttons her lips.
Hester pops her upside the head.
Bully
Owwww!
Hester
Get outa my sight. Worse than a thief is a snitch that dont snitch.
Trouble, age 10, and Beauty, age 7, run in, breathless.
They see Hester eyeing them and stop running; they walk nonchalantly.
Hester
What you got behind you?
Trouble
Nothing. Jabber, what you doing?
Jabber
Cleaning the wall.
Beauty
My hair needs a ribbon.
Hester
Not right now it dont. You steal something?
Trouble
Me? Whats cookin?
Hester
Soup of the day.
Trouble
We had soup the day yesterday.
Hester
Todays a new day.
Beauty
Is it a new soup?
Hester
Wait and see. You gonna end up in the penitentiary and embarass your mother?
Trouble
No.
Hester
If you do I’ll kill you. Set the table.
Jabber
Thats girls work.
Trouble
Mommiee—
Bully
Troubles doing girls work Troubles doing girls work.
Hester
Set the damn table or Ima make a girl outa you!
Trouble
You cant make a girl outa me.
Hester
Dont push me!
(Rest)
Look, Baby. See the soup? Mommies stirring it. Dont come close, its hot.
Beauty
I want a ribbon.
Hester
Get one I’ll tie it in.
Beauty gets a ribbon.
Trouble gets bowls, wipes them clean, hands them out.
Hester follows behind him and, out of the back of his pants, yanks a policemans club.
Hester
Whered you get this?
Trouble
Hester
Trouble
Hester
I said—
The Red Letter Plays Page 1