Father Comes Home From the Wars

Father Comes Home From the Wars is a play published in 2015 by Suzan-Lori Parks. It was first performed at The Public Theater in New York City on October 28, 2014, with Sterling K. Brown in the role of Hero. Suzan-Lori Parks is a playwright, screenwriter, musician, and novelist. In addition to writing the play, she also composed the accompanying music and wrote the lyrics for certain scenes. Her most successful play, Topdog/Underdog, premiered off-Broadway in 2001. In 2002, it released on Broadway and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, making her the first African American woman to win this award. In 2023, it was revised again and received a Tony Award. In 2022, Parks was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.

Father Comes Home From the Wars is an epic drama billed as an “American Odyssey.” It takes place in the early 1860s and follows Hero, an enslaved man who is promised freedom if he fights for the Confederacy alongside his enslaver, the Colonel. Hero and his fellow enslaved people, Penny, Homer, Old Man, and a Chorus, must navigate the complex nature of freedom, loyalty, betrayal, fate, and free will as they navigate the unjust system of enslavement.

Father Comes Home From the Wars was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2015, and it won the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History.

This guide refers to the Theatre Communications Group’s 2015 paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source text discusses enslavement, racialized physical abuse, racism, and rape. The guide quotes and obscures the author’s use of racial slurs.

Plot Summary

Part 1 opens in early spring of 1862. A Chorus of three enslaved people bet on whether their peer, Hero, will join their enslaver, the Colonel, in the United States Civil War on the side of the Confederate Army. They are joined by Old Man, who is like a father to Hero. Old Man is looking for Hero’s dog Odd-See (who is called Odyssey Dog), who ran away after Hero kicked him. Old Man refuses to join the others in betting on Hero’s decision.

Hero enters holding a Confederate uniform; he has not yet decided whether he will go to war. While the Chorus leaves to search for Odyssey Dog, Hero asks for Old Man’s advice about his decision. The Colonel has promised Hero freedom if he joins him in the war, but he has promised Hero freedom before and revoked it. However, Hero decides he will go, hoping to help his friends when he returns as a free man.

His wife Penny enters, and Hero tells her he is leaving, even though he’d told her earlier that he wouldn’t be going. Hero changes his mind again after talking to Penny, and he decides to cut his foot off since that would give him an excuse not to go. Another enslaved man named Homer enters. Previously, Hero had cut off Homer’s foot on the Colonel’s orders after Homer was caught attempting to run from their enslavement; thinking back on this, Hero loses the nerve to maim himself. Homer thinks Hero should run away but Hero doesn’t want to gain his freedom by running; he thinks this is the same as stealing. Homer says that one day, when the Colonel was drunk, he revealed to Homer that Hero was the one who told the Colonel where Homer went after he ran away. The Colonel had promised Hero his freedom if he would reveal Homer’s location, though he didn’t fulfill his promise. The Chorus is initially reluctant to believe this, but Hero and Penny confirm it. The Chorus and Old Man disavow Hero for his betrayal. Hero then decides to go with the Colonel to war.

Part 2 takes place several months after Part 1, in late summer of 1862. The Colonel has taken a Union man named Smith captive. The Colonel thinks Smith is a white captain for the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment. When the Colonel leaves to scout the armies from both sides of the war, Smith reveals to Hero that he is in fact a private and a Black man; he is wearing his captain’s coat, which is why the Colonel assumed he was a white man. Smith reveals that he can pass as white; this is the only reason the Colonel hasn’t killed him already. He has Hero try on the Union coat before the Colonel returns. The Colonel orders Hero to pack up and follow with Smith while he scouts ahead. Alone again, Hero frees Smith. Smith tries to get Hero to join him, but Hero refuses. After Smith leaves, Hero puts on Smith’s Union coat under his Confederate coat.

Part 3 takes place in fall 1863, more than a year after the events of Part 2. Three “Runaways” acting as the Chorus are being sheltered by Homer and Penny as they try to make their escape from enslavement. They want Homer to leave with them, but he hesitates to go because he loves Penny, and Penny won’t leave because she is waiting for Hero to return. After some cajoling, Homer agrees to go with them, knowing Penny will never leave Hero. Though she is pregnant with Homer’s child, Penny’s heart still belongs to Hero. However, right before Homer leaves, she decides to go with him.

Just as they are about to leave, they see Odyssey Dog on the horizon. The dog tells the story of how he returned to Hero and stayed by his side until the Colonel died, and he says that Hero is on his way back. Hero returns with gifts for everyone, and he tells them he has changed his name to “Ulysses.” He also says that he has a new wife named Alberta. Penny is heartbroken to hear this but dutifully prepares the house for them. Hero/Ulysses begins to suspect that there are feelings between Penny and Homer, and he attacks Homer with a knife. On seeing this, Penny decides to leave with Homer and the Chorus. Left alone, Ulysses buries the Colonel’s body.