These days we live in an age of contemporary interpretations and modern-day explorations of classic texts and stories from the Western canon and beyond. Blame it on the constant need to fully investigate famous literature or a postmodern awareness of the changes to the human condition. But one thing is for sure: The existence of contemporary interpretations of classic works signals the unfinished business we have with these pieces and the issues they examine.
Suzan-Lori Parks' In The Blood is one such contemporary interpretation. A retelling of Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic, The Scarlet Letter, the play (first performed in 1999) is coming to Charlottesville's Live Arts Theater March 13. Director Clinton Johnson puts Parks' retelling of The Scarlet Letter on the stage to examine the tension within a supposedly sympathetic society that exploits the underprivileged.
Parks' play takes place "Here" and "Now" (according to the play's stage notes). Live Arts sets the play "in an unnamed city, under an unnamed bridge," and the story centers around Hester La Negrita (a modern day Hester Prynne). Hester is a homeless mother with five children
Read More
The best albums of 2014
By Noah Zeidman | December 4, 2014Across genres, it has been a pretty great year in music.
Top 10 movies of 2014
December 4, 2014This has been an excellent year for film, offering everything from gripping blockbusters to innovative personal films.
Iggy Azalea is “Reclassified”
December 4, 2014It has become common practice among music artists to repackage their albums in an effort to simultaneously boost single sales and dish out new content by slightly renaming the album or slapping “Deluxe” onto the title.
