Introduction & Overview of A Soldier's Play by Charles H. Fuller

A Soldier's Play Introduction

A Soldier's Play opened November 20,1981, at the Negro Ensemble Company for the first of 468 performances. Fuller has stated that his play is modeled after Herman Melville's Billy Budd, which explores a confrontation between evil and innocence that results in tragedy. While it is about the investigation of a murder, A Soldier's Play is not a murder mystery in the strictest sense. The investigation does not consist of policemen unraveling clues or of the simple analysis of physical evidence. Instead, the investigation by a black officer is primarily an exploration into who the slain Waters really was and how racism influences men's behaviors and ideals. The investigator, Captain Davenport, tries to solve this mystery by interviewing the men who served under Waters.

These interviews provide pieces of a puzzle, that when assembled, create a picture of a complex man who often bullied his men but who saw the...
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