Review: The Scarlet Letter at American Stage

ST PETERSBURG — The Scarlet Letter is the latest reimagining of a classic by 2017 Wall Street Journal Playwright of the Year Kate Hamill, who had already received critical acclaim for her reinventions of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, The Odyssey, Vanity Fair, and Little Women.

Everyone knows Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic 19th-century story of adultery. Everyone expects that Hamill's version will put it through a contemporary lens to dazzling effect, and The Scarlet Letter delivers with powerful social commentary wrapped in a tightly told, deeply engaging tale.

Hester Prynne has had an out-of-wedlock affair and bears a child to prove it. She refuses to name the father and is ostracized by the village, relegated to the woods on the outskirts of the settlement. Her husband, who had sent her ahead from the old country, was thought to have died during his own voyage two years prior to her pregnancy. When he returns years later, life for Hester and her daughter Pearl becomes even more fraught with peril.

Anula Navlekar gives a powerful performance as Hester, gracing the character with the strength to remain indifferent to her ostracization from a community she increasingly views as unworthy of capitulating to for reentrance.

Gerrard Lobo is delightfully menacing as her husband, Chillingworth, a charming snake who deftly ingratiates himself with those who can help him serve up what he interprets to be righteous revenge. Michael Hisamoto gives a beautifully understated and graceful performance as Dimmesdale, the village priest, and Karen Sternberg is captivating as the self-righteous Goody Hibbins.

Now, let's talk about Pearl. The child is a life-sized wooden puppet, created by theater designer Michael Horn and brilliantly voiced and puppeteered by Noa Friedman. At first, I thought it might be owed to the difficulty of reliably finding child actors adept enough to play a role that is not only demanding but pivotal to the play. However, Navlekar explained at a behind-the-scenes event that Hamill's direction on this matter was more intentional.

"In contemporary times, we would never place judgment on a child," explained Navlekar. "We would never look at a child and say it should be ostracized."

Friedman's highly animated performance is utterly jaw-dropping, and Pearl, whose physical personification is, well, not dissimilar from Regan in The Exorcist, steals every scene she is in.

American Stage's production of Hamill's masterpiece is nothing short of masterful. Directed by Arpita Mukherjee, The Scarlet Letter runs through February 15. Click here for schedule and ticket information.