Chloe Edwards, Photography Editor

A self-described abortionist driven by revenge enacts a plot to end the first lady’s pregnancy without her knowing. It is a climactic episode in Suzan-Lori Parks’ play “Fucking A” — which opens Thursday, Oct. 21, for a six-performance run at the University Theatre.

There is a lot going on in the scene, with deceptions and revelations at every turn. Director Bobbin Ramsey DRA ’24 and the four actors present noted as much in rehearsal, where they spent two hours working through — and reworking, moment by moment — less than 10 minutes of action. “Fucking A” is Ramsey’s thesis production at the David Geffen School of Drama.

“What is the narrative they’re giving themselves to get through this moment?” Ramsey asked the actors at one point in the rehearsal room at 149 York St.

The narrative she chose to give New Haven audiences this month, as the culminating project of her time at the School of Drama, revolves around Hester Smith — an outcast abortionist in a city governed by a repressive mayor. Hester’s chest is branded with the letter “A,” marking her villainized occupation.

Parks took inspiration from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel “The Scarlet Letter” in writing “Fucking A,” which, through dialogue and songs, explores themes such as vengeance, imprisonment and class divisions. The playwright, a recipient of a 2002 Pulitzer Prize and a 2018 Windham-Campbell Prize, both for drama, envisioned “Fucking A” as taking place in a setting removed from a specific place or time.

Ramsey places the dystopian story in “the not-so-distant future” of an American town. Ramsey told the News that her previous work has often addressed how people behave in systems that constrain them.

“Part of what we’ve been developing in the room is this idea of having a conversation with the audience that says, ‘We are not that far from this world,’” Ramsey said. “It’s about the ways in which our bodies are controlled by the state.”

Ramsey said she hopes the play will serve as a warning about restrictions on bodily autonomy like abortion bans and incarceration, while stirring audience members to pursue greater freedom.

“Pro-abortion” and “prison abolitionist” are among the terms Ramsey used to describe the show, which holds particular significance in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion.

Gabrielle Hoyt ’15 DRA ’24, the dramaturg for “Fucking A,” said she expects the play will lead audiences to examine familiar societal problems.

“I cannot imagine that anybody is going to leave this play being like, ‘Oh, yeah, that system was working. That was firing on all cylinders,’” Hoyt said.

“Fucking A,” which premiered in 2000, was previously staged on campus by the Yale Dramatic Association in 2019. The Dramat’s production, directed by a professional and performed by undergraduates, set Hester’s tale in the so-called Golden Age of Pornography largely in the 1970s, with pornographic clips projected during scene transitions.

For this fall’s production of “Fucking A,” graduate students in the School of Drama, selected by the school’s faculty, fill the entire nine-person cast and each role in design and stage management. A two-story set is under construction.

Giovanna Drummond DRA ’24, who plays Hester, is in her final year of the School of Drama’s acting program. Drummond told the News that playing the lead role has pushed her to develop her singing abilities, with the echoes of prior characters like Euripides’ Medea further challenging her. 

“It is stretching every rubber band in my body,” she said.

As Ramsey and the actors rehearsed the climactic scene, they at times dwelled for minutes on the emotional undercurrents of the fleeting silent pauses that Parks calls “spells.” Ramsey would ask questions to probe the characters’ mindsets and motivations.

Even as their acting transmitted anguish, the actors repeatedly descended into laughter in the rehearsal room. At the end, the group circled up to share things they wanted to rid from their lives — such as negativity, anxiety and transphobia — and acted out an explosive fire to burn them.

“There are so many debates right now about how can we make brave, groundbreaking art while still taking care of each other?” Hoyt said. “One of the things about Bobbin’s direction is that she really does show that it’s a false dichotomy.”

Tickets for “Fucking A” are on sale for $15, or $10 for students.