Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3)

Suzan-Lori Parks

• Verlag: Theatre Communications Group
• Jahr: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781559368179
• Thema: Literature
• Thema: American Drama

"By turns philosophical and playful, lyrical and earthy, Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3), swoops, leaps, dives and soars, reimagining a turbulent point in American history through a cockeyed contemporary lens... The finest work yet from this gifted writer."— The New York Times

"Thrilling.... A masterpiece... A story that engages the deepest possible issues in the most gripping possible ways."— New York

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.

Part 1

A Measure of a Man

Characters

The Musician

The Chorus of Less Than Desirable Slaves:

Leader

Second

Third

Fourth

The Oldest Old Man

Hero

Penny

Homer

The musician sings:

Dark Is the Night

Dark is the night

Long is the day

Dark is the night

Long is the day

Got time for work

No time to pray.

He’s heading out

Or will he stay.

The sun he hides

Don’t see his face

The night he crowds

And death don’t leave a trace.

Dark is the night

But there’s no resting place.

Early Spring, 1862. A slave cabin in the middle of nowhere.

Far West Texas. One hour before dawn.

The Chorus Leader measures the night by holding a hand up to the sky.

After a moment, the Leader is joined by the Second.

Leader

Leader

Leader

Second

How much time we got?

Leader

How much you want?

Second

Don’t be smart.

Hero’s gonna be leaving when the sun comes up.

And we gotta know how long we got till he goes.

Leader

Listen to him. Talking like he know.

But we don’t know if Hero is going or not.

All we know is the sun’s gonna rise, God willing,

But when it comes to Hero,

We gotta wait for his word to know what he’s doing.

Second

Me, I’m betting that he’s going.

Leader

Are you now?

Second

That’s right.

Leader

You’re betting that Hero’s gonna go to the War?

Second

That’s how I’m betting,

Mark it.

Leader

You betting that Hero’s going to the War with the Boss-Master?

Working as the Boss-Master’s servant-slave?

Second

That’s what Hero does here, so that’s what he’ll do when he goes to the War.

His job ain’t gonna change just cause he gets to wear a fancy uniform.

Leader

You’re betting Hero is gonna wait on Boss-Master hand and foot?

Second

He waits hand and foot on him now.

Leader

And hold his horse steady for him to climb on top?

And hold his horse again for him to climb on down?

And run behind, carrying all Boss-Master’s whatnots on his back?

Running behind the Boss-Mas...