How Blood Go

by Lisa Langford

Racism is literally killing Black people. Studies have shown that racial disparities in health care lead to higher mortality rates for African Americans than their white counterparts. How Blood Go asks what would you be willing to give up to be treated fairly: your consent, your compassion, or even your color?

How Blood Go weaves the present and past together to explore the strained relationship between the...

Racism is literally killing Black people. Studies have shown that racial disparities in health care lead to higher mortality rates for African Americans than their white counterparts. How Blood Go asks what would you be willing to give up to be treated fairly: your consent, your compassion, or even your color?

How Blood Go weaves the present and past together to explore the strained relationship between the medicine and African Americans in this country. Just when Quinntasia is ready to take her wellness program, Quinntessentials, to market, she learns that her healthy body is not the product of her hard work, but of a futuristic experimental device, activated without her consent, that makes her appear White to doctors and nurses. She must decide if she’s willing to give up her Blackness to make her dream come true. Meanwhile, Bean and his brother, Ace, experience unethical medical treatment in the American South (the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment 1930-1970).

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How Blood Go

Recommended by

  • Cheryl Bear: How Blood Go by Lisa Langford
    “

    A powerful look into the inequity in healthcare for and the life and death reality of that. Well done.

    A powerful look into the inequity in healthcare for and the life and death reality of that. Well done.

    ”
  • David Hansen: How Blood Go by Lisa Langford
    “

    Langford's work is poetic and comic and cutting and brilliantly outlandish. With "How Blood Go" she takes studies into how black patients are treated poorly as compared to white patients by the medical establishment, and weaves it into a broader historic context. It's a startling satire on important historic themes, leavened with humor, compassion and style. Langford is a playwright who should be produced everywhere. Highly recommended!

    Langford's work is poetic and comic and cutting and brilliantly outlandish. With "How Blood Go" she takes studies into how black patients are treated poorly as compared to white patients by the medical establishment, and weaves it into a broader historic context. It's a startling satire on important historic themes, leavened with humor, compassion and style. Langford is a playwright who should be produced everywhere. Highly recommended!

    ”
  • Rachel Greene: How Blood Go by Lisa Langford
    “

    MonologueBank enthusiastically recommends the work of Lisa Langford. HOW BLOOD GO weaves sci-fi and history in a truly imaginative way to shine light on the systematic racism experienced by black patients in the United States healthcare system. Standout monologues include DIDI's story of her grandmother's preparation for a trip to the doctor and her description of the difference between being strong and being healthy. QUINNTASIA'S dynamic and physical monologue about a workout routine is eye-opening and potent. This play is full of passion and heartbreaking in its honesty. Any actor would be...

    MonologueBank enthusiastically recommends the work of Lisa Langford. HOW BLOOD GO weaves sci-fi and history in a truly imaginative way to shine light on the systematic racism experienced by black patients in the United States healthcare system. Standout monologues include DIDI's story of her grandmother's preparation for a trip to the doctor and her description of the difference between being strong and being healthy. QUINNTASIA'S dynamic and physical monologue about a workout routine is eye-opening and potent. This play is full of passion and heartbreaking in its honesty. Any actor would be lucky to perform such great writing.

    read more
    ”
Cast: 5-6W, 3M
Quinntasia: Late 20s. African American. Female. fitness enthusiast. Experiment subject.
Anne: Late 50s. White. Female. Experiment head.
Ace: Late 50s. African American. Male. Ancestor. A Physician. He’s smart and ambitious, a little supercilious. Bean: 30s. African American. Male. Ancestor. Experiment subject. He’s hapless and humorous.
Didi: 50s. African American. Female. Quinntasia’s best friend.
Tron: 20s. African American. Male. Quinntasia’s boyfriend.
Big Gal: 30s African American. Female. Bean’s lover.
White Quinn: Late 20s. Female. White.
White Didi: Late 50s. Female. White.
Negro: 18th century runaway, played by same actor who plays Bean
Negress: 18th century runaway slave, played by the same actor who plays Big Gal
John Brown: 19th century escaped slave, played same actor who plays Tron
Norm: 1960s doctor, played by same actor who plays White Didi
Frank: 1960s doctor, played by same actor who plays White Quinn

Development History

  • Reading, Congo Square, 2019

Production History

  • Workshop, Cleveand Public Theatre, 2019