‘In the Blood’ at con-con earns a scarlet A Bob Abelman Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal Member, American Theatre Critics Association Suzan-Lori Parks’ 1999 play “In the Blood” ends the way Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” – a novel about 17th century life in Puritan Massachusetts and the play’s source of inspiration – begins. Hester, standing silent on a scaffold while subjected to public humiliation, bravely shows contempt for a hard and pitiless world that offers no mercy to those who transgress its rigid codes of conduct. And, like the Hester of old, this one draws the same conclusion about her plight: “I don’t think the world likes women much.” The play rages acerbically, articulately and without subtlety against a system that grinds women like Hester down, and feels as vital and urgent today as when Hawthorne’s novel was first released. This con-con production captures all this and makes for an intriguing and thought-provoking evening of theater. For more of this article, go to www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/bob_abelman/