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.

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. “You have to listen to those voices when they talk to you,” said Parks. 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]

While In the Blood took place in a contemporary urban world, Fucking A has no such identifiable historical grounding. Set in "a small town in a small country in the middle of nowhere," it is a dark fable worthy of John Webster and other Jacobean tragedies. Ms. Parks composed brief sardonic songs in the style of Kurt Weill for her characters, with such titles as "Working Woman's Song" and "My Little Army." The world revealed in the play is bleak and dystopian; one of naked and sadistic power where its subjects are subject to arbitrary imprisonment, where sexuality and fertility are discussed in an alternate language (translated on over-stage screens).

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 after he was imprisoned as a child for stealing a piece of meat from the Rich Family. The "rich bitch" who denounced him has grown up to marry the "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 ("Working Womans Song"). Canary, who is the Mayor's mistress, discloses that the Mayor's Wife, the First Lady, isn't able to bear a child. The Mayor is ready to have her quietly killed so he can take a more fertile wife, and Canary is confident that he will choose her. Before Canary leaves, she gives Hester a gold coin, enough money for Hester to finally have a picnic with her son.

In the next scene, the First Lady mourns over her period as it proves, once again, that she is not pregnant. The Mayor assures her that the problem is entirely on her as he is perfectly capable ("My Little Army"). The First Lady, desperate for the Mayor's love, begs him to try one more time. He begrudgingly agrees, and the scene ends with the First Lady passionately kissing her dispassionate and disinterested husband.

Meanwhile, Hester meets with the Freedom Fund to arrange the meeting with her son. The Freedom Fund lady informs Hester that Boy's "picnic price" has doubled because he's continued to commit more crimes in prison. She reveals that Boy's initial three-year sentence has "doubled and tripled and quadrupled" during his incarceration, a sign that he is a "hardened criminal." Hester disagrees, saying her son is an angel and that she must have miscalculated his picnic price.

Later, Canary Mary walks through a park where she meets an escaped convict, "Monster." He hits on her, but she rejects his advances. 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 about torturing and killing an escaped convict ("The Hunters Creed"). They laugh about torturing the man and lament that he wasn't a famous convict like the escaped Monster. "Butcher" engages with them, sharing a knife catalog and discussing the different blades. As the Hunters drink, Hester arrives at the bar to find "Scribe," so he can write a new letter to send her son. She and the Hunters share a moment of tension before Butcher breaks it, sending the drunk Scribe back to his business.

In the following scene, Canary Mary angrily tells the Mayor she wants him to finally marry her. He deflects by saying after he murders (and subsequently mourns) her death, "the people" will want him to marry a woman of class instead of a whore. He then offers Canary gold as a way of placating her, and Canary laments the loss of her freedom in exchange for comfort ("Gilded Cage").

During the next interlude, 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.

Butcher visits Hester. While Hester thinks his visit is to collect on a debt, Butcher instead simply wants to talk. He reveals that his daughter, like Hester's Boy, is in jail for a long list of offenses. He then shows her a technique for slitting a pig's throat that is completely painless and has her practice the move until she gets it just right. After Hester offers to show him her gold coin, he tells her he wants to marry her. She responds by saying he could never love her branded "A" or the job it represents, but he simply says "loving anything is hard." They end the scene holding hands.

The next day, Hester awakes to find Monster has broken into her home. He robs her of some of her money but sees the scar on her arm. He realizes that she is his mother but doesn't tell her, running off instead. The next day, Hester finally has enough for her to pay for a furloughed picnic with her son. 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 in her. Halfway through the meal, Hester realizes Jailbait is not her son. Jailbait claims that he killed her son in prison ("My Vengeance"). As Hester is frozen with shock, Jailbait begins to rape her.

Part Two begins with Monster and the First Lady in the park. She is holding her stomach, and Monster assumes he impregnated her. He demands she give him 10,000 coins to help him live the life he feels he deserves. The First Lady suddenly realizes that this is the escaped convict the Hunters are looking for. She tells him she'll turn him in, but he responds that he'll kill her first. As she runs off, he asks again if he got her pregnant.

During the next scene, the First Lady goes to Hester to get an abortion, fearing the child is Monster's instead of the Mayor's. She meets two other women waiting for Hester and realizes that, whoever the father is, she can pass the baby off as the Mayor's ("My Little Enemy"). She gives money to the waiting women and leaves.

Hester, enraged over the death of her son and the rape she experienced, is now bent on revenge against the First Lady. She devises a plan with Canary to kill the First Lady that night, utilizing Butcher's unwitting help. In a brief interlude, the Hunters talk about getting closer to Monster based on an "anonymous tip" presumably given to them by the First Lady and a "piece of his shirt" possibly given to them by Canary Mary. Hester goes to see Butcher in an effort to convince him to help her kidnap the First Lady. While she is there, the Mayor visits Butcher and reveals the First Lady is pregnant. Hester, realizing a new opportunity, changes her plan. Butcher continues to ask Hester to marry him ("A Meat Man Is a Good Man to Marry"), but she insists that he help her "talk" to the First Lady before she can marry him. He agrees. The ensemble sings "Hard Times."

As Hester waits for Canary Mary and Butcher to bring the First Lady, Monster returns. He claims to be a newly released prisoner who knew her son and wants to return some of Boy's things. Hester realizes that Monster is the convict everyone is looking for and starts to panic. Monster tries to tell her that he is Boy, her son, but Hester refuses to listen. She points a gun at him, and he leaves. Canary Mary and Butcher enter with a drugged and confused First Lady. Butcher is concerned, but Hester reassures him everything is fine and takes the First Lady into the back. Canary Mary keeps Butcher distracted as Hester performs an abortion on the First Lady, not knowing that she is, in fact, aborting her own grandchild. Hester emerges from the back triumphant, covered in blood. Canary Mary tells her that she will have to keep her distance to avoid suspicion. Hester grabs Butcher's hand as he leaves, but he removes his hand from hers and slowly wipes the blood off his own hands before leaving.

Just after Butcher and Canary leave, Monster runs into the house. He's been badly wounded by the hunters and is looking for a safe place to hide. Hester accepts that Monster is actually her son. As the barking of the Hunters’ dogs grow louder, Monster begs Hester to kill him. He tells her that the Hunters will torture him to death if she doesn't save him now. She refuses, asking him how he turned from her Boy into Monster. He tells her it wasn't hard, that he "made something of myself" ("The Making of a Monster"). Hester finally decides to save him from torture. She slits his throat like Butcher taught her to, and Monster dies in her arms. The Hunters enter and see that he is already dead. Although they are disappointed, they drag his body away because there is “still fun to be had.”[3] Hester stands alone in her house, but only has a moment before her bell rings. She gets her abortion tools and continues 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 Hesters 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.

The story centers on Hester the abortion provider. She works as an abortion provider for the “Rich People”, as she calls them.[4] Her son was sent to prison by the First Lady, who is a very rich woman. This shows that Hester is a poor woman who seems to live in an oppressed world. The playwright never suggests it in the writing, but Hester is mostly likely an African-American woman living during the racist era of America. Racism isn't evident in the play, but when Hester continually talks about how she has to work for the “Rich People”, it's easy to relate that time period. Hester in herself is a strong and determined woman, and even though working as an Abortionist is a disgraced occupation, she continues to do it just to see her son again. She loves him so much that at the end of the play, she is able to save him pain by killing him.

Monster is someone who seems like a kid who was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Granted he does eventually become more of a criminal as time passes (he robs Hester and threatens the First Lady), it seems like if he hadn't been sent to prison that he would’ve grown up a good kid under the guidance of his mother. The prisons of course had changed his perspective on life. “Better a monster than a boy. I made something of myself. It wasn’t hard”.[5] If only he could’ve grown up into something better than a monster.

The First Lady is Hester's archenemy and almost complete opposite. She sent Hester's son to prison, but Hester is working on getting her son out. The First Lady is unable to bear children, so no matter how much money she has, she is unable to do what a poor woman like Hester can do. The Mayor is displeased with her inability and openly cheats on her with Canary Mary. The First Lady can see that she will be replaced and her world is crashing down on her. She spirals into depression and in her angst she actually gets impregnated by the same man she sent to prison, Monster. She wants to abort the baby, so the thing she found so disgraceful in the first place, she sees as something she must do. She can be seen as the woman with the money and no love in her life, while Hester has numerous people who love her, but very little money.

The play is full of dark humor, although it is influenced by the structure of classic tragedy.

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":[6]

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.[7]

The overall theme or idea of the play is the mother's love for a child. Hester is an Abortionist; so every day, she has women who come in to rid themselves of an unwanted child. She's helping women who don't have enough love for their child, all the while she is scrapping and saving everything she can just to have a small picnic with her son. The collection agency tells her she has to pay double to see him now, and it doesn't even faze her. She continues to work towards her goal because she loves her son so much. Women are coming into her work to kill their sons, while Hester kills for her son. She aborts the First Lady's unborn child because of how she put her son in jail. In the end is the true test of how much Hester loves her son. He begs her to kill him in order to save himself from torture, and of course at first she is reluctant. Ultimately her strong love for him is the only thing that enables her to kill him to save him from pain. She was once a woman who aborted other women's children, finally it comes around full circle that she has to abort her own child.

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. It adds an interesting emotional element to the play and also shows off Park's musical and lyrical ability.

Here is one of the songs from the play:

Monster: “The Making of a Monster”[5]

“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[8]

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[9]

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[10]

It was presented Off-Broadway at the 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.[11] 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.

Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom

• 1990 Obie for Best New American PlayVenus
• 1996 Obie for Best New American PlayTopdog/Underdog
• 2002 Pulitzer Prize
• 1995 Lila-Wallace Reader's Digest Award
• 1994 W. Alton Jones Grant Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays
• 1992 Whiting Writers' Award
• 1990, 91 National Endowment for the Arts, Playwriting Fellow
• 2001, MacArthur Fellow