Fucking A

Fucking A is inspired by the novel The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850. Fucking A shares several similarities with this work. Both of the main characters are named Hester and are strong females with an unwavering love for their illegitimate child. Both Hesters also bear the letter “A” as a symbol of how society defines them: the modern Hester is an abortionist, the original is branded for adultery.

The idea for the play came to Parks while she was canoeing with a friend, when Parks yelled out, "I'm going to write a play, a riff on The Scarlet Letter, and I'm going to call it 'Fucking A'. Ha, ha, ha!"[2] While Parks was initially joking, she couldn't get the idea out of her mind. She began working on the play, but after 4 years of drafts and rewrites she still hadn't come up with a workable plot. She threw out everything except the title and the name Hester, and considered throwing out the latter as well, but the voice of Hester filled her mind and persuaded her to retain it and write Hester's story.[2]

Hester's story, however, was not called "Fucking A", but In the Blood; a contemporized version of Puritan adultery and guilt, about Hester La Negrita and her struggle to survive in a world filled with sexual oppression, along with her five children, all by different fathers. Once it was finished, she was then able to go back and write all of Fucking A, which she refers to as a "revenge tragedy" about abortionist Hester Smith.[2]

Hester Smith is an abortionist, physically branded with the letter “A”. The play begins with Hester talking to her friend "Canary Mary" about her son "Boy", whom she has not seen for 20 years, since he was imprisoned as a child for stealing a piece of meat from a wealthy family. The "rich bitch" who denounced him has grown up to marry the vicious "Mayor," who is the head of state. Hester describes how she writes to her son, and how she is saving her fees to pay for an outing with him. Canary confides to Hester that the Mayor has been cheating on his wife with her, and further discloses that the First Lady isn't able to bear a child and the Mayor's ready to leave her. Canary is confident that the Mayor will choose her, while Hester is left daydreaming about the day she can see her son again. Canary later walks through a park where she meets an escaped convict, "Monster". She notices he has a scar on his arm, and after a few exchanged words she continues on her way.

The scene changes to a bar where three hunters are bragging to each other about which one will catch Monster for the bounty. Hester arrives at the bar to find "Scribe", so he can write a new letter to send her son, but while there she meets another man named "Butcher" who takes a liking to her. Meanwhile, Monster meets an emotionally broken First Lady in the park, they exchange some kind words, and in the end she asks if she can kiss him. He agrees, and they kiss.

The next day Hester arrives home to find Monster has broken into her home and has set fire to her house. He robs her of some of her money, but in seeing her scar, which matches his, he starts to lose face and runs off. The next day, Hester finally has enough for her to pay for a furloughed picnic with her son. When she finds that the price has risen, she returns with more money as the plot takes a decidedly operatic turn. As she lays out the picnic spread, the guard brings out a prisoner called "Jailbait", who Hester ecstatically assumes is her son. She embraces him and tries to get him to show her the scar she gave him on his arm when he was first taken away to prison, but he is more interested in the food than he is in her. Halfway through the meal Hester realizes Jail Bait is not her son, at which point Jailbait claims that he killed her son in prison. Hester is frozen with shock, and as Jail Bait finishes eating and begins to rape her, she is still too stunned to resist.

The next scene opens with the First Lady discovering she is pregnant but knows she has had intercourse with many guys, but since Monster is the possible father, she wants to abort the child, but decides to pass the baby as the Mayor's instead. The abortion doesn't work and she has the biggest monster child ever made. Hester is now bent on revenge against the First Lady for putting her son in prison in the first place, and devises a plan with Canary to kill the First Lady, utilizing Butcher's unwitting help. Hester starts to put the pieces together and realize that Monster is actually her son, but struggles to accept that he is not the angel that she thought he was. When Hester learns that the First Lady is pregnant she changes her plan and decides to abort the baby instead of killing the First Lady so that she can echo the pain that the First Lady caused her. The next day Canary and Butcher bring a drugged First Lady to Hester's house, where Hester aborts the baby, not knowing that it is her own grandchild. Just after Butcher and Canary leave, Monster, being chased by the Hunters, runs into the house. Hester accepts that Monster is actually her son. As the barking of the Hunters’ dogs grow louder, Monster tells Hester that if he is caught they will not kill him but torture him mercilessly. He begs her to kill him, and although at first she is incredulous, she finally decides that to save him from pain. She slits his throat like a pig, which Butcher has told her is the least painful way. The Hunters enter and see that he is already dead, and although they are disappointed they still drag his body away because there is "still fun to be had".[3] Hester stands alone in her house for an instant, but soon gets her abortion tools and goes into the other room to continue her work.

• Hester Smith: The abortion provider and main character. Her son has been sent to jail by the First lady.
• Canary Mary: A friend of Hester's and a "kept woman", a prostitute.
• The Mayor: Leader of a small piece of land. Cheats on his wife with Canary Mary.
• The First Lady: The Mayor's wife. She is unable to bear children which really bothers the Mayor. She sent Hester's son to jail.
• Butcher: A local Butcher who falls in love with Hester.
• Monster: Escaped convict turns out to be Hester's son. Real name is Boy Smith.
• Freedom Fund Lady: Collects money from Hester for the picnic bail.
• Scribe: He writes beautifully, and Hester goes to him so he can write a letter to her son for her.
• First, Second, and Third Hunter: All three them are bent on catching Monster for a money prize and also so they can torture him.
• Jailbait: He is mistaken for Hester's son and he's the one who actually has the dream picnics with Hester.
• Guard: Brings Jailbait to Hester.
• Waiting Woman #1 and #2: Two women waiting to abort their child.
• 3 Freshly Freed Prisoners: They sing a song during the play.

Suzan-Lori Parks created a separate type of language called "Talk". It is used only by the women in the play. The women who speak in "Talk" also speak English, but use "Talk" when they are talking about pregnancy or vaginas.

Here is an example of "Talk":[4]

Canary: Die la-sah Chung-chung? Sah Chung-chung lay schreck, lay frokum, lay woah woah crisp woah-ya.

Translation: And her pussy? Her pussy is so disgusting, so slack so very completely dried out.

Hester: Rich Girl she tum woah Chun-chung crisp woah-ya, Rich Girl!

Translation: Rich girl yr pussy is all dried out, Rich Girl!

When "Talk" is used there is a projector of some sort that shows the translation onto the stage.[5]

Suzan-Lori Parks wrote numerous songs for this play. Just about every character has a song that expresses something about themselves. Hester has a song called “My Vengeance” and even the Hunters have a song called “The Hunters Creed”. These songs are often sung during a scene where the character will break off and sing.

Here is one of the songs from the play:

Monster: "The Making of a Monster"[6]

"Youd think it'd be hard

To make something horrid

Its easy.

Youd think it would take

So much work to create

The Devil Incarnate

Its easy.

The smallest seed grows to a tree

A grain of sand pearls in an oyster

A small bit of hate in a heart will inflate

And that’s more so much more than enough

To make you a Monster.

Youd think itd be hard

To make something horrid

Its easy."

Premiere[7]

Fucking A was originally produced by DiverseWorks for Infernal Bridgegroom Productions on February 24, 2000, in Houston, Texas. It was directed by Suzan-Lori Parks. The cast consisted of Tamarie Cooper, Amy Bruce, Charlie Scott, Amy Dickson, Andy Nelson, Troy Schulze, Lisa Marie Singerman, Cary Winscott, Keith Reynolds, Alexander Marchand, and Daniel Treadway.

Off-Broadway[8]

It was presented Off-Broadway at the Public Theatre, opening on February 25, 2003. Directed by Michael Greif, the cast consisted of Susan Blommaert, Bobby Cannavale, Mos Def, Peter Gerety, Jojo Gonzalez, Jesse Lenat, S. Epatha Merkerson, Manu Narayan, Chandler Parker, Daphne Rubin-Vega and Michole Briana White.

Off-Broadway[9]

It was presented Off-Broadway at the Pershing Square Signature Center's Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre, opening on August 22, 2017, in conjunction with Parks' play, In the Blood. These plays were presented as part of Residency One, a year-long artist residency at Signature Theatre.[10] Directed by Jo Bonney, the cast consisted of J. Cameron Barnett, Brandon Victor Dixon, Ben Horner, Joaquina Kalukango, Marc Kudisch, Christine Lahti, Ruibo Qian, Elizabeth Stanley, and Raphael Nash Thompson.