A Soldier's Play is a play by American playwrightCharles Fuller. Set on aUS Army installation in thesegregation-eraSouth, the play is a loose adaptation ofHerman Melville's novellaBilly Budd, and follows the murder investigation of the Sergeant in an all-black unit. The play uses a murder mystery to explore the complicated feelings of anger and resentment that someAfrican Americans have toward one another, and the ways in which many black Americans have absorbed white racist attitudes.

The drama won the1982Pulitzer Prize for Drama, among other accolades. It was the basis for a 1984 feature film adaptation,A Soldier's Story, for which Fuller wrote the screenplay.

In 1944 at theUnited States Army's Fort Neal inLouisiana, a light-skinned black man Sergeant Vernon Waters is murdered by an unseen shooter. Just before his death, Waters utters the enigmatic cry, "They still hate you!"

Captain Richard Davenport is a black Army officer; a rarity. He arrives to investigate the killing. Initially, the primary suspects are localKu Klux Klansmen. Later, bigoted white soldiers fall under suspicion. Ultimately, Davenport discovers the killer was one of the black soldiers under Waters' command. Waters' men hated him because Waters himself treatedSouthern black men with disdain and contempt.

As Davenport interviews witnesses and suspects,flashbacks show what Sergeant Waters was like, and how he treated his men. The light-skinned Waters was highly intelligent and extremely ambitious. He loathed black men who conformed to old-fashioned racist stereotypes. Waters dreamed of sending his own children to an elite college where they would associate with white students, rather than with other blacks. In Waters' mind,Uncle Toms and "lazy, shiftless Negroes" reflected poorly on him, and made it harder for other African-Americans to succeed. For that reason, Waters persecuted black soldiers like Private C.J. Memphis, whose broad grin andjive talk infuriated Waters. Waters' cruelty and vindictiveness drove Memphis to suicide, which alienated the rest of Waters' men and turned them against him.

Shortly before he was murdered, Waters came to realize how futile and foolish his lifelong attempts to behave like a white man had been. His dying words, "They still hate you," reflected his belated understanding that white hatred and disdain of black men like himself had nothing to do with stereotypical black behavior, and that whites would probably always hate him, no matter how hard he tried to emulate "white" ways.

The play originally was stagedOff-Broadway by theNegro Ensemble Company at the Theater Four (now called the Julia Miles Theater). It opened on November 20, 1981, and closed on January 2, 1983, after 468 performances. The original cast includedAdolph Caesar as Sergeant Waters,Denzel Washington as Private Peterson,Larry Riley as Private C.J. Memphis,Samuel L. Jackson as Private Louis Henson,Peter Friedman as Captain Charles Taylor, andCharles Brown as Captain Davenport. The director was Douglas Turner Ward. The play won, in addition to the Pulitzer Prize, theOuter Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Play, theNew York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play, and theObie Award for Distinguished Ensemble Performance.^[2]

The Valiant Theatre Company presented the play Off-Broadway at Theatre Four from November 19, 1996, to December 8. Directed by Clinton Turner Davis, the cast featuredWood Harris (Private First Class Melvin Peterson), Keith Randolph Smith, Danny Johnson (C.J. Memphis), Geoffrey C. Ewing (Captain Richard Davidson), Jonathan Walker andAlbert Hall (Sergeant Waters).^[3][4]

The play was revived Off-Broadway bySecond Stage Theatre from September 20, 2005 (previews), opening on October 17, 2005, and closing on November 27, 2005. Directed byJo Bonney, the cast featuredJames McDaniel as Tech. Sergeant Vernon C. Waters,Anthony Mackie as Private First Class Melvin Peterson,Mike Colter as Private C.J. Memphis,Dorian Missick as Private Louis Henson,Steven Pasquale as Captain Charles Taylor, andTaye Diggs as Captain Richard Davenport.^[5][6]

Roundabout Theater Company presented the play's Broadway debut in January 2020, starringDavid Alan Grier as Sergeant Waters,Blair Underwood as Captain Davenport, andNnamdi Asomugha as Private First Class Melvin Peterson; directed byKenny Leon.^[7][8] As of March 8, 2020, the production had completed 55 performances. On March 11, 2020, all Broadway theaters closed due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, suspending the play's run.^[9] Despite its shortened run, the production won multiple accolades, including theTony Award for Best Revival of a Play, theDrama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Play, theDrama League Award for Outstanding Revival of a Play, and theOuter Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Revival of a Play.^{[10][11][12][13]} The play embarked on a national tour during the 2022–2023 season, starringNorm Lewis as Davenport andEugene Lee as Waters.^[14]

Caesar, Washington andLarry Riley reprised their roles in the film version,A Soldier's Story, directed byNorman Jewison.

In September 2021, it was reported thatSony Pictures Television will be adapting the play into a limited television series titledA Soldier's Story. Grier will reprise his role as Waters and also serve as executive producer on the series.^[15]

• A Soldier's Play at theInternet Off-Broadway Database (archived)

• 1981 plays
• Off-Broadway plays
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama–winning works
• New York Drama Critics' Circle Award winners
• African-American plays
• American plays adapted into films
• Detective, mystery and crime plays
• Plays about the military
• Plays set in Louisiana
• Fiction set in 1944
• Tony Award–winning plays

• Webarchive template wayback links
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata