Adaptation and Alienation in Father Comes Home from the Wars

Molly Herbert

In Father Comes Home from the Wars adaptation and alienation are used in a multitude of ways. This is to highlight the issues of racism in today’s society and how these outdated ideas continue to affect people of ethnic minorities. Adaptation is used alongside notions of alienation, to promote critical awareness and reflection in the audience. Adaptation is, as Linda Hutcheon wrote in her book A theory of adaptation, “… a creative interpretive transposition of a recognizable other work or works, adaptation is a kind of extended palimpsest and, at the same time, often a transcoding into a different set of conventions” (Hutcheon and O’Flynn, 2012) In the case of Father Comes Home from the Wars it then could be seen that adaptation is the taking of historical events and shaping them to create a story that transcends its apparent historic confines depicting a colonising imperialistic nation, built on the back of slavery, to then show how the racial inequality of that time has had lasting effects, still being felt in the present day.

Recent years have seen an inflation of racially influenced hate crimes. National statistics show that in 5 key monitored strands of England and Wales between 2012/2013 out of a total 42,255 hate crimes committed, 35,845 were racially motivated. However in 2015/2016 out of a total 62,518 hate crimes committed, 49,419 were racially motivated, this a drastic increase when compared to previous years. This was perhaps spurred on by events such as Brexit. The steady increase however has in turn seen a rise in activist movements such as; Black Lives Matter which campaigns against institutionalised racism. Suzan-Lori Parks, the author of the play is herself of African American descent and was brought up in a military house hold. Her personal experiences have influenced the themes of her work.

Fig. 1. A Battle in the Wilderness (2016)

Parks doesn’t only put forward the problems of the play solely through methods of staging and costume but also through the characters themselves. Initially it appears there are two ‘white’ characters - the “Boss Master” an incredibly racist man by today’s standards and “Smith”, a seemingly ‘white’ union soldier. The audience become drawn to empathizing with Smith, however it is later learnt that he is mixed race and therefore has ties to minority groups. The sudden revelation that Smith is not in fact of purely ‘white’ origins breaks the audiences empathy with the character as a typically ‘white’ audience would have no true understanding of the experiences of the character as we now understand them. This a use of alienation and is perhaps used to make the audience aware that everything is not as ‘black and white’ as believed and that the colour of your skin does not guarantee your heritage is strictly of one ethnicity.

Though Father Comes Home from the Wars is an ‘original’ work by Parks, it is in turn still an adaptation of historical Civil War events, however told from a new perspective, this being the perspective of the African American slaves kept in this period. As Devin Harner says in his essay Adaptation, The Orchid Thief, and the Subversion of Hollywood Conventions:

“Adaptation creates multiple opportunities for dialogue between the two texts. The amazing thing about transformations like this-like cover versions of popular songs where the new version of the song adds something imperceptible, or takes something away, or shifts the tone, or the key, or the pacing-is that the two texts are dependent on each other, not to make meaning, but to make further meaning. Although each can stand alone, the later text comments somehow on the earlier one. These complementary trajectories project a “story” which shares neither a beginning nor an end with the earlier text.” (Harner, D 2010)

This could be taken to mean that an adaptation should be a ‘development’ on what is considered the original or should progress from that which came before, whilst also being different, something that; has yet to be done. Adaptation in Father Comes Home from the Wars helps the audience to engage with the themes and issues that arise in the context of the play such as slavery and racial inequality, by using both historical and modern elements it to help bring to the forefront problems still impacting minorities today. Showing a side of the Civil War which is so often overlooked by history whilst also showing the clear similarities to current events, the first showing of the play in the United States being in 2014 just a year after the forming of the “Black Lives Matter” movement. Perhaps the sudden increase of movements standing up for racial equality helped to further a mass understanding and show the truth behind a history that is so typically whitewashed.

Another method used in Father Comes Home from the Wars to amplify points raised is that of alienation. Alienation in this context is as Josette Féral put it in their essay Distancing Brecht - Alienation theory in multi-media performance “A process by which both theatrical and extra theatrical phenomena are rendered strange, forcing the spectator to adopt a critical distance with regard to that which is given to see and hear.” (Féral and Bermingham, 1987) From this you could take that alienation is taking acting methods and elements of the stage, that are familiar and ordinary and turning them into something unexpected and peculiar to the environment they are seen in, and by doing so forcing the audience out of the perceived illusions of the stage. One clear example of this is the breaking of the fourth wall. As Brecht says in his book Brecht on theatre: The development of an aesthetic:

“Above all, the Chinese artist never acts as if there were a fourth wall beside the three surrounding him. He expresses his awareness of being watched… The audience can no longer have the illusion of being the unseen spectator at an event that is really taking place.” (Brecht et al., 1964)

From this you could take that the breaking of the fourth wall is a tool to promote a critically aware audience. This is in fact a method used in the performance and achieves this effect. Throughout the performance the actors do indeed display an awareness of the performance itself. An example of this is in the second part, when Hero is talking to Smith - whilst making a difficult decision he queries the audience asking their thoughts on the matter. This breaking of the narrative and illusion of the created ‘world’ is to place it back into the real world in order to present to the audience the possibility of making a change in the narrative. The characters asking of questions however is mostly for show as the audience are conscious of that fact that though they are being directly addressed no response is expected. Perhaps this is a representation of how people don’t speak out enough against those who try to subjugate ethnic minorities and how there are too many people in the world who are too comfortable playing the passive spectator, maybe this is a tool to promote a more active stance on addressing the concerns of the play.

Fig. 2. A Measure of a Man (2016)

One element of Father Comes Home from the Wars however uses adaptation as a tool for alienation. As Féral says in Distancing Brecht - Alienation theory in multi-media performance:

“By not limiting the principle of alienation to theories of acting, I am asserting that it can indeed be an effect produced by the play itself, and/or by certain characteristics of the stage. As such alienation effect could be felt independently of the actors’ physical intervention” (Féral and Bermingham, 1987)

This could be taken to mean that alienation effect can also be felt through elements of both stage and costume design. An example of this is seen in the costume design here; a blend of contemporary clothing and period 1862 dress. As shown in the example, graphic printed T-shirts, Baseball caps and an otherwise modern assortment of shoes are worn. This mixture breaking the assumed historical narrative of the play, coupled with the use of this modern style alongside the period dress gives the feeling of displacement, causing the audience to question when the performance is truly set, before ultimately realising its true purpose. The costuming helps to draw the play into its contemporary relevance, a way of furthering the audience's engagement with the themes being portrayed. The initial shock of seeing the combination distances the audience, giving a moment of clarity which in turn promotes critical thinking and reflection throughout the performance.

Having looked into Father Comes Home from the Wars with reference to adaptation, alienation and their uses to magnify the messages of the play and the impact of racism in the present. It is clear that the production shows the issues of outdated thinking and how it has as much of an effect in the world today as it did in 1862. By deploying methods of alienation such as the breaking of the fourth wall Parks promotes a critically distanced audience. Showing the struggles of minorities makes the viewers aware of their lack of understanding and knowledge of their experiences. This is aided by the use of adaptation to break the illusion that the production is ‘just’ a fictional story, but is in fact an adaptation of historical events, told through the perspective of an African American slave. It is one that goes beyond that which history typically depicts, giving the audience a truthful account of the lives of civil war slaves, whilst also making the audience aware that the struggles of inequality they faced then, are still very real struggles that people face today. 

Illustrations List 

Figure 1. Battle in the Wilderness. (2016) From: Kenton, T. (2016) A Battle in the Wilderness,. [Photograph] (2016). The Guardian. At: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/sep/21/suzan-lori-parks-interview-royal-court-father-comes-home-from-the-wars-obama (Accessed on 30 November 2016)

Figure 2. A Measure of a Man (2016) From: Kenton, T. (2016) A Measure of a Man,. [Photograph] (2016) Father comes home from the wars (parts 1, 2 & 3). At: http://www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk/news/first-nights/article/item374792/father-comes-home-from-the-wars-parts-1-2-3/ (Accessed on 30 November 2016)

Bibliography

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Brecht, B. et al. (1964) Brecht on theatre: The development of an aesthetic. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

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Féral, J. and Bermingham, R. (1987) ‘Alienation theory in multi-media performance’ In: Theatre Journal 39 pp.461–472. [online] At: http://www.jstor.org.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/stable/3208248?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents (Accessed on 20 November 2016)

Hutcheon, L. and O’Flynn, S. (2012) A theory of adaptation. (2nd ed.) New York: Routledge.

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Lawson, M. (2016) ‘Suzan-Lori parks: “People in America are often encouraged not to think”’ In: The Guardian [online] At: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/sep/21/suzan-lori-parks-interview-royal-court-father-comes-home-from-the-wars-obama (Accessed on 30 November 2016)

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