Blood Pressure

By Alison Sieloff on Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 4:00 am

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There's only one thing more challenging than having five children by five different men, and that's being judged for having five children by five different men. Just ask Hester. Bringing up her brood isn't easy, and when there's no money coming in, it's damn near impossible. Heap on the criticism, the double standards and the lack of empathy, and Hester's scarlet letter really begins to bleed through. Sure, this single mom is flawed, just like the rest of us, but why should she receive extra helpings of scorn and struggle? In playwright Suzan-Lori Parks' In the Blood, which is a modern-day take on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, we peer into Hester's life and have the opportunity to examine ourselves and consider those snap judgments we regularly make. The University of Missouri-St. Louis Department of Theatre, Dance and Media Studies presents In the Blood at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday (October 25 through 28) at the Touhill Performing Arts Center on campus (1 University Drive at Natural Bridge Road). Tickets, which cost $5 to $10, are available by calling 314-516-4949 or visiting www.touhill.org.
Oct. 25-28, 2012