A Soldier’s Play
Reviewed by G. Bruce Smith
Ahmanson Theatre
Through June 25
RECOMMENDED
A Black sergeant is killed, shot to death with two bullets. His body is found in the woods near the Louisiana army base where, in 1944, a company of Black soldiers is stationed. Yes, Charles Fuller’s A Soldier’s Play, winner of the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, is a riveting whodunit, a murder mystery that keeps you guessing until the end. But it is much more. At its core, it tells the story of a particular kind of pernicious trauma brought on by racism — a self-loathing that leads to tragedy.
Captain Richard Davenport (Norm Lewis), a military police lawyer, is sent to the base to investigate the murder. He clashes with Captain Charles Taylor (William Connell), the White commanding officer who doubts that a Black officer can conduct an effective investigation. Over the course of the play, the two men continue to have conflicts, sometimes with racist undertones, but it turns out they are on the same page: finding the killer.
As Davenport interviews the soldiers who were under the unforgivingly strict command of the murder victim, Sergeant Vernon C. Waters (Eugene Lee), we learn in tantalizing dramatic beats about this deeply conflicted man and the events that led to his death. Waters was hard on all his men, but particularly tough on Private C.J. Memphis (Sheldon D. Brown), an uneducated Mississippian and a gentle soul, who sings and plays the blues, captivating his audiences. Waters is relentless in demeaning Memphis. To Waters, Memphis represents the worst of Black Americans, those who will “bring us down” when World War II ends and when (Waters hopes and sometimes believes) Blacks will achieve equality with Whites.
And yet, Memphis feels sorry for Waters. “Any man who don’t know where he belong gotta be in a whole lot of pain.”
Memphis is right. We learn that Waters is full of self-loathing, trying to fit into a White world while acknowledging “they still hate us.” He is also wracked with guilt over an action he took that leads, ultimately, to his murder.
A Soldier’s Play crackles with rising tension, enhanced by Kenny Leon’s crisp direction and a relatively sparse set designed by Derek McLane in which the actors can move smoothly. The entire cast is superb, but particularly noteworthy are Brown, whose portrayal of Memphis is raw, vulnerable and heartbreaking, and Lee, whose Waters is a tortured soul and a complex man. Both characters are vividly brought to life on stage.
Adding a haunting element to the production are the blues songs that members of the cast sing, either as a group or as solos. And the staccato of marching boots is a subliminal reminder of the bullets fired in the war abroad — and at home.
Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown LA; Tues.- Sat., 8 pm, Sat., 2 pm, Sun., 1 pm & 6:30 pm; thru June 25. CenterTheatreGroup.org. Running time, two hours with a 15-minute intermission.
