SOURCE: Solomon, Alisa. “Signifying on the Signifyin': The Plays of Suzan-Lori Parks.” Theater 21, no. 3 (summer-fall 1990): 73-80.

In the following essay, Solomon studies the role of language and communication in the four plays of Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom and investigates the political and racial overtones of Parks's works.

As part of the Manhattan Theater Club's “Downtown/Uptown” festival last spring, Suzan-Lori Parks's Greeks shared a bill with a play by Jeff Jones. Like other artists in the three-week festival—among them Holly Hughes, Mac Wellman, Susan Mosakowski, Richard Elovich—Parks is part of the BACA Downtown-P.S. 122 circuit, and her work, though no doubt heard of (having been praised by Mel Gussow in The New York Times) had never been seen north of 14th Street. During the festival, audience members reportedly walked out in droves on some of these evenings. More than one participating writer told me...