Description

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"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 yet another empty promise. As his decision brings him face-to-face with a nation at war with itself, the loved ones Hero left behind debate whether to escape or wait for his return...only to discover that for Hero, free will may have come at a great spiritual cost. This play] is an explosively powerful drama about the mess of war, the cost of freedom, and the heartbreak of love, with all three parts seen in one night"--Back cover.

Praise For…

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"EXTRAORDINARY! THE BEST NEW PLAY I’VE SEEN ALL YEAR. By turns philosophical and playful, lyrical and earthy, SUZAN LORI-PARKS’S new play SWOOPS, LEAPS, DIVES and SOARS across three ENDLESSLY STIMULATING hours, reimagining a turbulent turning point in American history through a cockeyed contemporary lens. THE FINEST WORK YET FROM THIS GIFTED WRITER...The WONDER of MS. PARKS’s achievement is how smoothly she blends the high and the low, the serious and the humorous, the melodramatic and the grittily realistic. At once an epic poem, a moving personal drama about one man’s soul struggle, and a seriocomic mediation on liberty, loyalty and identity" - The New York Times, Read More

"THRILLING! A MASTERPIECE. Heartbreakingly individual, in just the way that history itself is...SUZAN-LORI PARKS EXQUISITELY twists the plot. She makes us feel as if we are seeing the dreadful dilemmas not just of slavery but of emancipation for the first time." - New York Magazine, Read More

"Grade A...STUNNING. That RARE WORK OF ART that bears the heavy burden of its subject matter, but carries it lightly...SUZAN-LORI PARKS brings the FULL FORCE of her DRAMATIC POWER. She elevates her themes with echoes of classic literature while at the same time DOUBLING DOWN ON COMEDY" - Entertainment Weekly, Read More

"PROVOCATIVE, RICH and IRREVERENTLY FUNNY." - New York Post, Read More

"BRILLIANT, BEAUTIFUL & STUNNING...This HAUNTING work is FUNNY and TRAGIC, WHIMSICAL and LACERATING, POETIC and POIGNANT, navigating its radical tonal shifts with FLUIDITY and GRACE. It plugs historical experience directly into the socket of contemporary life." - The Hollywood Reporter, Read More

"TRIUMPHANT! Overloaded with SOARING LANUGAGE and PROVOCATIVE DEBATE." - Huffington Post, Read More