The play focuses on two timelines: a Black man in the Deep South in the 1930s and a Black woman in the present/future time. Both are taking prat in medical experiments without their knowledge.
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"The theme of disparities in health care for Black communities isn't something that just happened," said Charlique C. Rolle, executive director of the Congo Square Theatre. "It's always been relevant to our communities, always been a part of our history as a people."
"How Blood Go" is the result of playwright Lisa Langford's discovery that her ancestor was the first patient in the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments.
"At the same time, my hair was falling out and I was trying to figure out what was going on with me, so I went to a dermatologist as one would do, and he was a white man, and he just looked at me and said, 'You Black girls wear your hair too tight,'" Langford said.
That experience led to the dual timelines; the medical experiments of the 1930s, and the futuristic experiment of wearing a device that will change the way doctors look at a person of color and perceive them as white, therefore getting better treatment.
"It's horrifying, but who would believe that? I mean, OK, let's say in the future they come up with a device - what good does that do, it doesn't change the problem, it doesn't change the issue," said Caron Buinis, who plays Anne, Norm and white Didi.
"I think comedy is the perfect medicine to get this message through, because it's heavy and it's eye-opening to some, and confirmation and affirmation for people who have been through it," said Ronald L. Conner, who plays Ace.
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Yolanda Ross of "The Chi" is thrilled to make her Chicago stage debut in the powerful play, and it's not just her character who has experienced medical inequalities.
"I've been in the healthcare system for a while because I'm a diabetic," she said. "I saw a doctor here, and I've never felt like I was part of a, like on a conveyor line, dat dat dat, Bye! Wow, that's really, you don't have anything to say about this? That was kinda ugly, I felt a way about it."
"This play is speaking to right now, it's speaking to what's happening in our world right now and how that is disproportionately affecting Black and Brown folks at a different level.," said Ericka Ratcliff, artistic director of Congo Square Theatre.
"I want people to learn our history. Not our history, it's our history because it happened here, so it's not just us, it's everybody," Ross said.
Many times the actors stay after the show to talk with theatregoers, and Congo Square Theatre has partnered with the City of Chicago creating Our Celebration of Healing to bring awareness and access to equitable health care.