A Soldier's Play by Charles Fuller
"A Soldier's Play" by Charles Fuller is a Pulitzer Prize-winning drama that unfolds as a murder mystery set in a segregated U.S. Army camp in Louisiana during World War II. The play centers on the murder of a tyrannical technical sergeant, Vernon Waters, and follows Captain Davenport, a Howard University-trained attorney, as he investigates the case amidst a backdrop of racial hostility and mistrust. While the murder initially appears racially motivated with the local white population as prime suspects, the investigation reveals deeper social issues, including systemic racism and the internal conflicts within the African American community.
Fuller’s work thoughtfully examines themes such as black identity, oppression, and the complexities of race relations in America. Through the character of Waters and his interactions with P.F.C. Peterson, the play critiques the destructive nature of racial prejudice, highlighting the psychological toll it takes on individuals. The narrative challenges the audience to confront the multifaceted dimensions of race, making it a poignant exploration of the dynamics of power and the struggle for dignity. "A Soldier's Play" ultimately serves as a platform for discussion about the historical and ongoing issues of race and identity in society.
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A Soldier's Play by Charles Fuller
First produced: 1981, at Theatre Four, New York City
First published: 1981
The Work
A Soldier’s Play, which won the Pulitzer Prize in drama in 1982, is a murder mystery in which Charles Fuller examines many social issues and poses provocative questions. The play won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, with a citation for best American play. The screenplay adaptation, A Soldier’s Story (1984), which Fuller wrote, garnered an Academy Award nomination for adapted screenplay.
A play in two acts, A Soldier’s Play examines and evaluates the causes of oppression of African Americans and the obstacles to their advancement. Unlike Fuller’s two other award-winning plays, The Brownsville Raid (1976) and Zooman and the Sign (1979), A Soldier’s Play has no particular, actual historical source. The play very realistically describes, however, the complex social issues that pervade his work: institutional, systemic racism in the U.S. Army during World War II; race relations; black genocide and the search for the meaning and definition of blackness in America; the meaning of democracy and the place of African Americans in it; and what it means to be black in a racially biased society.
Outside a segregated U.S. Army camp in Tynin, Louisiana, during World War II, a tyrannical technical sergeant, Vernon Waters, is murdered. The local brass has succeeded in playing down the murder until a Howard-trained attorney, Captain Davenport, is sent by Washington, D.C., to investigate the case. Initially assumed to be racially motivated, the murder’s prime suspects are the white townspeople. The Ku Klux Klan is the first suspect, then two white officers. Davenport’s thorough investigation, conducted in an atmosphere of racial hostility, mistrust on all sides, and condescension, leads to a surprising discovery of the murderer and the motives for the murder. The murderer is P.F.C. Peterson, the least-likely suspect.
Strong, outspoken, and opinionated, Peterson faces off with Waters, whose militant agenda for black destiny causes the innocent, naïve C. J. to commit suicide. Water’s heinous, sinister, and obsessive master plan to cleanse the black race of “geeches” such as C. J. meets its match in Peterson’s own calculated perspective of how to refashion the black image. Mutual hatred eventually leads to murder, not before, however, Waters realizes the flaw in his inhumane master plan, grieves his obsession with blackness, and challenges the source of his misdirected self-justifying posture.
In focusing on the character of Waters rather than on the murder or the murderer, Fuller is able to engage and address the major causes and effects of the race problem, particularly the psychological. The play indicts all of the characters—white and black, except C. J.—for racially motivated violence informed by pervasive prejudice and dangerous stereotypical assumptions.
Bibliography
Bygrave, Mike. “A Soldier’s Story.” Sight and Sound 54 (Winter, 1984/1985): 17-19. Discusses the problems involved with producing the 1984 film. Includes insightful comments by Fuller about his experiences with racism.
Hill, Errol G., and James V. Hatch. A History of African American Theatre. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Exhaustive history of African American drama, organized broadly into eras. Places Fuller within his larger literary and dramatic context.
Kunz, Don. “Singing the Blues in A Soldier’s Story.” Literature Film Quarterly 19, no. 1 (1991): 27-34. Focuses on the film’s score. Kunz argues that the film reproduces the play and that both affirm racial progress in American society.
Peterson, Bernard L. Contemporary Black American Playwrights and Their Plays: A Biographical Directory and Dramatic Index. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988. Contains useful factual information on Fuller’s career. Bibliography, indexes.
Sanders, Leslie Catherine. The Development of Black Theater in America: From Shadows to Selves. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988. Provides a helpful context for interpreting Fuller’s work.
Storhoff, Gary. “Reflections of Identity in A Soldier’s Story.” Literature Film Quarterly 19, no. 1 (1991): 21-26. Examines the reflection trope that organizes both film and play. In contrast to Kunz, Storhoff argues that the film oversimplifies the play and compromises its artistic integrity.