An epic dramatic trilogy set during the American Civil War, by one of America’s leading playwrights.
America, 1862, during the Civil War. Hero, a slave, is promised his freedom if he joins his master in the ranks of the Confederacy against the Union. In a nation at war with itself, he must fight against those striving to abolish slavery.
The family he leaves behind debates whether to escape or await his return, and they fear that, for Hero, freedom is an empty promise that may come at a great cost.
Suzan-Lori Parks’ Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) received its UK premiere in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2016, directed by Jo Bonney. The trilogy premiered at The Public Theater, New York, in 2014, was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and won the Edward M Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History.
‘Has the sharp quality of a fable that will never cease to be timely’
— Independent
‘Mischievous, mighty and moving… a restlessly intelligent, compelling work that expresses, with inspired dramatic invention, the way that the brutal past pervades the present’
— Financial Times
‘Epic in every sense… totally compelling… captures the complexity of a civil war where black Americans found themselves fighting on opposing sides and where, although freedom was the ultimate goal, its achievement was fraught with hazards that continue to this day.’
— Guardian
‘Thrillingly leads the charge for a new kind of “historical” drama’
— Telegraph
‘Ambitious and assured… the writing is poetic and richly textured, full of echoes and asides, moving deftly between registers… Parks is a writer of ambition, skill and soul, repurposing old forms in new ways and engaging with the ripples of history, telling a story that has yet to end’
— The Stage
‘A rich, complicated, unsentimental play with an awful lot to say… fantastically imaginative’
— Time Out
‘Thrilling. A masterpiece’
— New York Magazine
Edward M Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History
