Lawrence.com

The latest production staged by The Unicorn Theatre is one of those rare adaptations of a known classic that can be viewed as an outright success in its own right. The fact that most people have yet to hear of it, or its playwright, makes that almost a crime punishable by a lifetime of attending New Theatre productions.

As a retelling of the classic Nathaniel Hawthorne tale, "The Scarlet Letter," "In the Blood" manages to work in commentary on gender, race and class discrimination. Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks also asserts that, while there may no longer be Puritans on the scene, life has not evolved much for some Americans during the past 300 years.

In Park's version, Hester La Negrita (Natasha Charles), is a homeless mother of five children living under a bridge in a New York City ghetto. Even though the play is set in the modern day, where a more compassionate society has services in place to assist the homeless, Hester does not gain any substance from it. Instead, the people who are meant to help her � from her best friend to social welfare workers � exploit her. They condemn her actions and take what they can away from her.

"It's a wonderful pretense, and I think Parks did an incredible performance piece," director Martin Chislom says. "She's taken the basic story and added a lot of texture to it. It's a wonderful opportunity for actors to create characters. In the book, Hester was made to stand out, and the reality of the modern day is that Hester still stands out, and all the subtext of the book, like its sexuality, is more pronounced."

Like the first Hester Prynne, however, this modern-day heroine manages to keep her dignity, despite being forced to live on society's edge. It's an in-your-face piece that pulls no punches in its gritty portrayal of the downtrodden. And with that in mind, it's not a play for children.

"It's for a very mature audience," Chislom says. "It's not a question as to whether it's an appropriate play for children to see. But I think the audiences that go to Unicorn plays expect to see material of a mature subject matter."

To Chislom, artistic director Cynthia Levin and the cast, it's a story worth telling.

"I think the audience will be a little shocked at what they see and recognize in the behavior of the characters onstage," he says. "They will walk away with more information on homelessness. They'll be hit in the face with the desperation of a single homeless parent."

Top dog

Parks is something of a theatrical wunderkind. Her previous works include "The American Play," "Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom" and "Venus." The last two both won Obie Awards. She also wrote the Spike Lee film "Girl 6," and in the process picked up grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation and The National Endowment for the Arts, along with being the only playwright in 2001 to receive a $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship.

Her play "Topdog/Underdog" is slated for a Broadway opening later this spring. But right now, "In the Blood" is still her most recognized work. In 2000 she was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for it. Despite all the accolades and awards, though, the playwright gives production companies incredible leeway in producing her work.

"The way the play is written, the hardest part is lifting it off the page," Chislom says. "In the published notes, she doesn't always spell out to go left or go right. There are beats and moments that a director can add to fit the skills of the actors."

Chislom, who earned a master's degree in theater and film from Kansas University, is the artistic director of the M-C-Players, who focus on African-American projects. She was working with the Unicorn staff on a writing program for minorities when the opportunity to direct "In the Blood" opened up. Chislom is delighted with the collaboration from the cast and crew.

"It's a learning process for all of us," Chislom explains. "Cynthia Levin is involved, so it's a collaborative process that we all add to. The director, artistic director and the actors all have a vision of the play and we work to get it to that point. There are a lot of choices to make to make a play work out."