A Soldier's Play, Eisenhower Theatre, Kennedy Center, Washington, DC

 

William Connell as Captain Taylor and Norm Lewis as Captain Davenport in A Soldier's Play. Photo credit: Joan Marcus.

“Procedural” is a term used to help define a genre of storytelling, like a murder mystery. Law and Order in its various incarnations has used the formula for years; Murder, She Wrote was another. Think back to shows like Dragnet and Perry Mason. These shows last so long because they follow a familiar formula. An inciting incident draws the audience in and keeps them interested until the solution is found after dogged investigation by a persistent character in search of truth.

Charles Fuller (who died in October at age 83) won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics Award for Best American Play for A Soldier’s Play, not because it is a procedural, but because as a procedural it accomplishes so much more than expected. Its original production was by the Negro Ensemble Company off Broadway, but its 2020 revival on Broadway won the Tony as Best Revival of a Play. The National Tour of the revival is at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theatre through January 8. A film titled “A Soldier’s Story,” based on the play, was released in 1984. 

The first thing we see is the shooting murder of Technical Sergeant Vernon C. Waters, a Black career Army man, who we later learn has served since World War I. We know what happened, what we don’t know is “whodunit.”

The time is 1944 and the place is Fort Neal, Louisiana, where White officers oversee members of an all-Black unit. The Black soldiers under Waters’s command are waiting, hoping for their chance to serve their country by fighting the Nazis. In the meantime, they are skilled baseball players who may have a chance to play the Yankees if they are undefeated at the end of their season.

Waters’s death is being downplayed by Captain Charles Taylor, the White officer in charge of the company, whose believes that Waters was probably killed by local members of the Ku Klux Klan. Taylor is a West Point-educated, by-the-books officer. No point in stirring up trouble with the locals over the incident.

Captain Richard Davenport appears on the base. Taylor has been given advance notice of Davenport’s visit but actively sought to prevent him from coming. Davenport is a curiosity, something none of the others have ever seen: a Black officer, a lawyer who has been sent to investigate the crime. Davenport is not one to back down to another officer of the same rank when challenged by Taylor, because Taylor happens to be White.

In flashbacks, we see Waters interacting with the men in his company. He can dish out praise, but he spends more time putting down the men. Waters has little regard for the men and they have plenty of reasons to hate and fear him. Private James Wilkie, for example, lost three stripes that took him 10 years to earn after Waters caught him drunk. Another man, PFC Melvin Peterson, has engaged in a physical altercation with Waters. Private C. J. Memphis, a talented ball player who also plays the guitar and sings, is a special target for Waters. Waters believes Memphis represents negative stereotypes associated with Blacks. He is superstitious, subservient, and a little slow with little ambition, content to be subservient. Waters looks down on his mostly-Southern men with the superiority of one who does not share their background and harbors higher hopes for his and his family’s future. (He wants his children to attend college with Whites so they will be able to be upwardly mobile.)

Two other White officers, Captain Wilcox and Lieutenant Byrd, may also be involved in the mysterious death. The two encountered Waters on the night he died and Byrd, who makes no attempt to hide his racist views, assaulted him. If Wilcox had not intervened, Byrd might well have beaten Waters to death.

One by one, Davenport meets with the men to hear about their encounters with Waters. Taylor, the White officer, gradually allies himself with Davenport; he is interested in seeing justice done, even though the deceased was Black and the killer potentially White. (Taylor believes that Blacks are incapable of plotting and executing such a murder.)

It would be imprudent to divulge the ending of a murder mystery. Suffice it to say that Davenport is relentless in his pursuit of the truth, which is ultimately revealed. He later tells us that most of the men made it to France to fight the Nazis.

The cast is led by Norm Lewis, a powerful Broadway leading man who was the first African American to star in The Phantom of the Opera. And who appeared in the “50 Years of Broadway at the Kennedy Center” event in February. Lewis has a commanding presence, resonant voice, inherent dignity, and gravitas, using them to excellent effect. Eugene Lee is sadistic and villainous as Waters, a character whose death is grieved by no one. William Connell makes a subtle transition as Captain Taylor, gradually showing respect to Davenport. Sheldon D. Brown is heartbreakingly sympathetic as the tormented Private Memphis. Additional cast members are Will Adams, Brandon Alvion, Sheldon D. Brown, Malik Esoj Childs, Ja’Quan Cole, Charles Everett, Alex Michael Givens, Matthew Goodrich, Chattan Mayes Johnson, Brandon Davon Lindsay, and Tarik Lowe. Every cast member delivers a strong performance.  

Director Kenny Leon and the play’s three designers deservedly received Tony nominations for the Broadway revival. The scene design by Derek McLane and lighting design by Allen Lee Hughes allow the action to move seamlessly between the past and “present” and from barracks to various other locales as Leon boldly moves his actors. Dede Ayite designed the appropriate period costumes.

I saw the original off-Broadway production 40 years ago (starring Charles Brown and Adolph Caesar, with Larry Riley, Samuel L. Jackson, and Denzel Washington in supporting roles). I remember coming out of the theatre, awed at Fuller’s accomplishment as a playwright, not only creating an absorbing mystery, but more importantly making powerful observations and searing statements about race and racism, classism, and colorism. Even as much as Waters resents the way he is treated by the White officers, he adopts the same attitudes toward his subordinates, not finding anything wrong with that. He is superior to them because of his geographic background, more worldly experience, and his aspirations, in addition to being lighter skinned than most of them. The bigotry of racism, classism, or colorism expressed by the characters may be casual or blatant (there are numerous cringe-worthy moments), but the prejudice is not confined to one race’s attitudes toward another, but includes one’s attitudes toward members of the same race. One aspect or another of this poisonous prejudice is found in each character and relationship. Is it ingrained in the American consciousness to seek superiority to others in one way or another? These ideas were eye-opening to me 40 years ago, and life since then unfortunately confirms that these attitudes remain characteristic of many contemporary relationships. Fuller offers no answers, but leaves us with many questions that are as relevant today as they were in 1982 or 1984. By placing these attitudes on display in A Soldier’s Play, we are challenged to look within and contemplate where these attitudes originate. This is a powerful production of an important play.

The National Tour continues in Charlotte, Philadelphia, St. Paul, Dayton, Atlanta, Chicago, and Los Angeles, concluding in June.