A Soldier's Play

Full Length, Drama

Chararcters: 13 male (10 black, 3 white)

Unit Set

In a Louisiana army camp in 1944 Capt. Taylor, the white C.O., has a problem. He commands a black company whose sergeant has been murdered. He is worried the murderer may be a white officer or the local Klan. A black captain is assigned to investigate and Taylor tries to discourage him because he feels the assigning of a black investigator means the case is to be swept under the rug. Capt. Davenport perseveres and, as he probes deeper, he finds the black soldiers are as corrupted with hatred as the whites. Each one had a motive for the killing. Davenport solves the case and the truth is even more shocking than the murder itself.

"A work of great resonance and integrity."-Newsweek

"One of the contemporary American theatre's most forceful and original voices."-NY Times

Winner of the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Drama