The Pulitzer-winning American playwright Suzan-Lori Parks goes back to the Greek tragedies and Homer’s Odyssey to find a format for her play, Father Comes Home From the Wars (parts 1, 2 & 3), which is set during the American Civil War.
The main characters have Greek names and there is also a chorus. The artificiality, a classical and colloquial mix, gives the drama, serious and comic, a fable-like quality; and that is its special appeal.
Jo Bonney’s production at Royal Court Theatre has a fine ensemble of actors who get it exactly right.
