The Red Letter Plays: In the Blood NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (103)
See it if you enjoy politically conscious theater, you are not looking for entertainment, care about race, sex and culture
Don't see it if you want cheerful, entertaining theater.
See it if you love SLP. This work as well as Fucking A were both brilliant productions of these pieces
Don't see it if you don't like SLP.... which there is something wrong if you don't
See it if You are looking for dramas that explore the place of the poor and homeless in our world.
Don't see it if You are looking for light or fluffy.
See it if You are interested in plays about individual and social responsibility focused on unwed mothers and absent fathers with food for thought
Don't see it if You don't like serous plays of two hours without intermission
See it if you like complex theater that does not assign quick blame to those who do foolish things. This is an intelligent look at poverty.
Don't see it if you expect an upbeat, easy show.
See it if You like intelligent plays that tell a difficult story
Don't see it if You want a light, feel-good song-and-dance show. Read more
See it if You like thought-provoking plays with strong, effective acting Don't see it if You don't want to be challenged when you go to the the
Don't see it if You don't want to be challenged when you go to the theatre.
See it if A complex drama about issues of those who fall through the cracks of society. Excellent writing and acting. Left me breathless.
Don't see it if If you prefer musicals and light dramas.
Critic Reviews (23)
"Both productions sock you in the gut with their visceral and violent imagery, but I would have to give a slight edge to director Benson’s imaginative interpretation of Parks’ vision with 'In the Blood'...The characters are symbolic...but Benson and a sensitive cast makes these allegorical figures into living, breathing people. The physical production is also arresting...Saycon Sengbloh is luminous and heartbreaking as the downtrodden Hester."
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"A spirited and stirring revival...Mean words are Parks’ stock in trade in this piercing study of a society that exploits its underclass...Benson orchestrates both the onstage action and the brisk transitions between scenes with admirable grace...Parks’ writing is sharp and nuanced despite the fact that her characters are mostly nameless archetypes...She manages to avoid the trap of fetishizing Hester’s predicament...Parks makes Hester’s suffering compelling, clear-eyed, and utterly horrifying."
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"Hester, played with consummate understatement by Saycon Sengbloh, clearly has no hope of escaping her Dickensian lot...Unlike Dickens, 'In the Blood' never flirts with sentimentality. One scene depicting the return of a former lover seems a little belabored, but director Sarah Benson otherwise creates a winningly anarchic atmosphere full of offbeat comic touches...Bursts of theatrical energy ensure that 'In the Blood’s' social critique never feels heavy-handed."
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"I have always felt that eliciting empathy from the audience highlights and focuses metatheatrical alienation rather than distracting from it: cold derives its meaning from heat, distance from closeness. Here, we only see Hester from very far away, we only hear her in monotone. When the curtain falls, she is covered in the blood of her favorite child. I felt nothing."
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"Powerful pieces...The connection to Hawthorne is subtle, resting mostly on the ideas of class distinction and human suffering...Hester is played with a driving force by Sengbloh...Parks describes these works as 'sister plays,' but really they’re about mothers, and the choices they must make to protect their children from all that life throws at them. Any mother will relate."
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"An overwhelming, wonderful, theatrical, human experience...I was appalled, devastated, exhilarated and amazed...I felt powerless, enraged, emboldened, and understood. Incredible...The monologues are chilling and scary, and oh so sad...The powerlessness of women, the lack of support for single mothers, and an uncaring bureaucracy all make the experience of watching ‘In the Blood’ completely timely and timeless. The acting is all superb."
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"'In the Blood,' for all its creativity, is a primarily cerebral affair. It’s impossible not to care because the story is all too reminiscent of a million others, but with its cartoonish characterizations and blunt metaphors, it forecloses the possibility of empathy and feeling. A Parks play is always memorable and never formulaic, but at an intermissionless 110 minutes, 'In the Blood' starts to feel more like homework than performance."
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