Lileana Blain-Cruz will direct The Blood Quilt by Katori Hall. Gathering at their childhood island home off the coast of Georgia, four disconnected sisters meet to create a family quilt to honor their recently deceased mother. When their reunion turns into a reading of their mother’s will, everyone must grapple with a troubling inheritance. Stitched with history, ritual, laughter and tears, will their “blood quilt” bind the family together or tear them apart forever? The Blood Quilt had its premiere at Arena Stage in Washington, DC.
The play probably doesn’t need to last two hours and forty minutes, but Hall, whose television series P-Valley will soon debut its third season, knows how to draw out long threads and keep them engaging: she is alternately soothingly poetic and fiercely funny, and her characters are people we’re more than willing to spend time with. This cast is uniformly terrific, with Banks and Watson particular standouts.
Strangely, Hall’s play lacks focus, as if it’s juggling too many ideas to go into depth on any one. There are themes of familial discord, buried secrets, deep resentment, historical ownership, selling out, gentrification, lack of parental care, and the tension between tradition and modernity. All these subjects are interesting, but the characters feel like they’re dancing on the surface.
2024 | Off-Broadway |
LCT Off-Broadway Premiere Off-Broadway |
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