This adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, in its world premiere in Red Bank,
is enthralling, wickedly funny and unflinchingly resonant.
By Alex Biese
Playwright Kate Hamill’s adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter,” now in its world premiere run at the Two River Theater in Red Bank, is a hypnotic, enthralling indictment of the pain and isolation lurking in the periphery of even the most pious of communities.
It turns out that even in the self-proclaimed “shining city on the hill,” there’s darkness on the edge of town.
The setting is the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1640s, but in director Shelley Butler’s stark presentation, this “Scarlet Letter” hits with a universal impact. Its story of a woman who insists on her bodily autonomy and the freedom to raise her child as she chooses as she becomes a pariah in the face of patriarchal persecution has contemporary resonance so readily apparent that lines such as, “It is a woman’s right to choose – repentance or damnation,” couldn’t help but elicit knowing laughter from the play’s opening night audience.
Amelia Pedlow stars as Hester Prynne who, as the show opens, is pregnant and unmarried, an offense considered in her time and place as worthy of public torture followed by imprisonment, as vividly depicted in the play’s opening minutes. Hester and her daughter, Pearl (brought to life in a scene-stealing work of puppetry performance by Nikki Calonge), are eventually permitted to live on the outskirts of their village on the condition that Hester forever wears the titular crimson “A” on her garments. It’s her own mark of Cain, forced upon her by a society that never truly forgives her for choosing to live and love on her own terms.
The rigid world Hester is trapped in is perfectly realized by scenic designer Takeshi Kata, whose brutal, angular work frames the Two River stage in a series of sharp-cornered archways that draw the viewer’s eye ever-deeper into a background darkness that might as well be oblivion. The proceedings on stage are flanked by ever-present windows, constant reminders of how, in an oppressive culture, one’s every move may be watched.
Kata’s sets are beautifully paired with the percussive, droning work of composer and sound designer Kate Marvin, who supplies the proceedings with a haunting, out-of-time ambiance. Special mention must also be made of the Pearl puppet, operated by Calonge and designed by James Ortiz. Beyond dressing Calonge in black, no attempt is made to hide the handiwork animating Pearl, but she is such a perfect result of performance and craftsmanship that no misdirection is needed. She’s a firecracker character who doesn’t comply with a world that intends to snuff out individuality, so why should she look like everyone else?
The show’s small cast – which also includes Mary Bacon as gadfly Goody Hibbins, Kevin Isola as town doctor Chillingworth, Keshav Moodliar as brooding minister Dimmesdale and Triney Sandoval as Governor Hibbins – all turn in exemplary performances, delivered at just the right pitch of messy, profoundly imperfect humanity.
Hamill, who earned raves a decade or so ago for her stage adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility,” and Butler, who directed the world premiere of Lucas Hnath’s “A Doll’s House Part 2,” have accomplished something remarkable here. With all due respect to Nathaniel Hawthorne, it’s highly likely that if modern audiences are familiar with “The Scarlet Letter,” it’s as a hazily recalled tome that bored and/or intimidated them as required high school reading.
That preconception, in turn, is one of the factors that makes Hamill and Butler’s work here so revelatory because together they have created an enthralling, wickedly funny, unflinchingly resonant piece of business that briskly does its work in less than 90 minutes.
“The Scarlet Letter” runs through Sunday, Feb. 25 in the Joan and Robert M. Rechnitz Theater at the Two River Theater, 21 Bridge Ave., Red Bank, as part of the theater’s 30th anniversary season. For tickets, $45 to $75, and more information on free pre- and post-show events the theater will be hosting, visit tworivertheater.org or call 732-345-1400.
This article originally appeared in the February 15 – 21, 2024 print edition of The Two River Times.
