History Resonates Through Suzan Lori Parks S Civil War Drama Father Comes Home From The Wars

There are plays that seduce and anesthetize and candy-coat everything to
make the world taste good. And then there are plays like Suzan-Lori Parks’s

three-part, three-hour 2014 drama Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2, & 3—long, complicated, intellectually teasing, hard-to-categorize works that riff on difficult issues and refuse to give expected, easy answers.

The last part of the play is in many ways a retelling of Ulysses’s return
home in The Odyssey, though Parks plays with the story a
bit. In her version, Ulysses’s dalliance with Calypso has resulted in a
child, and in an impediment to his reunion with Penny. Also, Ulysses’s

faithful dog, Argos, has a larger role in Parks’s play (in The Odyssey, he merely recognizes his old master and then dies).

Through 6/24: Wed-Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 2 and 8 PM, Sun 2 and 7:30 PM, Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn, 312-443-3800, goodmantheatre.org, $10-$40.