Father Comes Home From The Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3)
by Suzan-lori Parks

Father Comes Home From The Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) Book Cover
Father Comes Home From The Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) Cover

Highlights

120 minsAmerican Civil War EraRole(s) for Black Actor(s)Unit Set/Multiple SettingsPeriod CostumesAmericanHistoricalBlack History

Awards & Recognition

Lucille Lortel AwardObie AwardPulitzer Prize

Finalist: 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama Winner! 2015 Edward M. Kennedy Prize for a theatrical work inspired by American history Winner! 2015 Obie Award for Playwriting Nominee: 2015 Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Play Suzan-Lori Parks is the recipient of the 1992 Whiting Award for Drama

What readers are saying

Readers love 'Father Comes Home From The Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3)' for its profound themes and masterful writing by Suzan-Lori Parks. Many appreciate the play's exploration of freedom, fidelity, and its connections to historical and literary contexts, particularly the Odyssey. The engaging characters and emotional depth resonate well with audiences, making it a standout modern classic.

Profound themes and masterful writingEngaging charactersPowerful and poeticConnections to the OdysseySome found the lack of action disappointing

Synopsis

Finalist, 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama

"The finest work yet from this gifted writer."—

The New York Times

Offered his freedom if he joins his master in the ranks of the Confederacy, Hero, a slave, must choose whether to leave the woman and people he loves for what may be another empty promise.

As his decision brings him face to face with a nation at war with itself, the ones Hero left behind debate whether to escape or wait for his return, only to discover that for Hero, freedom may have come at a great spiritual cost.

A devastatingly beautiful dramatic work, Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2, & 3) is the opening trilogy of a projected nine-play cycle that will ultimately take us into the present.

Suzan-Lori Parks became the first African American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Topdog/Underdog in 2002.

Her other plays include The Book of Grace

, In the Blood

, Venus

, The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World

, Fucking A

, Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom and The America Play

.

In 2007 her 365 Days/365 Plays was produced at more than seven hundred theaters worldwide.

Parks is a MacArthur Fellow and the Master Writer Chair at the Public Theater.

Press Reviews

"Extraordinary! The best new play I've seen all year. By turns philosophical and playful, lyrical and earthy, Suzan Lori-Parks's new play swoops, leaps, dives and soars across three endlessly stimulating hours, reimagining a turbulent turning point in American history through a cockeyed contemporary lens. The finest work yet from this gifted writer... The wonder of Ms. Parks’s achievement is how smoothly she blends the high and the low, the serious and the humorous, the melodramatic and the grittily realistic.  At once an epic poem, a moving personal drama about one man’s soul struggle, and a seriocomic mediation on liberty, loyalty and identity."

— The New York Times

"Thrilling! A masterpiece. Heartbreakingly individual, in just the way that history itself is... Suzan-Lori Parks exquisitely twists the plot. She makes us feel as if we are seeing the dreadful dilemmas not just of slavery but of emancipation for the first time."

— New York Magazine

"Grade A... Stunning. That rare work of art that bears the heavy burden of its subject matter, but carries it lightly... Suzan-Lori Parks brings the full force of her dramatic power. She elevates her themes with echoes of classic literature while at the same time doubling down on comedy."

— Entertainment Weekly

"Brilliant, beautiful & stunning... This haunting work is funny and tragic, whimsical and lacerating, poetic and poignant, navigating its radical tonal shifts with fluidity and grace. It plugs historical experience directly into the socket of contemporary life."

— The Hollywood Reporter

Characters

Character
PART ONE

The CHORUS of Less Than Desirable Slaves:

LEADER
SECOND
THIRD
FOURTH
THE OLDEST OLD MAN
HERO
PENNY
HOMER
PART TWO
A COLONEL

in the Rebel Army

SMITH

a captive Union Soldier

HERO

the Colonel’s Slave

PART THREE
THE RUNAWAY SLAVES
HOMER
PENNY
ODYSSEY DOG
ULYSSES

Videos

Father Comes Home from the Wars Trailer

Available Editions

FormatPrice
Paperback
$9.49
Paperback
$27.99

Publication

Year2015
BindingPaperback
Pages192
LanguageEnglish
ISBN-139780573704109
ISBN-100573704104
eISBN-139781559368179
LCCN2015001459
LCCPS3566.A736 F38 2015
DCC812/.54

Father Comes Home From The Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) is a American historical play written by Suzan-lori Parks and published by Theatre Communications (2015).

Digital editions available on Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, Google Play (eISBN 9781559368179).

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Rating

4.5

920 ratings·2k reviews

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Performance Rights

Available for Licensing
Amateur Only
Fee:Minimum Fee: $120 per performance

Restrictions: Major Markets Plus (US) / Standard Plus Add'l Postcodes (UK)

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