Overview

Soldiers is a play about Winston Churchill, the monumental war leader Western civilization produced in its darkest hour. It is also a morality play that makes an impassioned plea for an international convention to outlaw the bombing of defenseless civilians. It is, finally, a restatement in gripping dramatic terms of the same question that animated The Deputy How does man exercise his responsibility?" Cast in form of a play within a play. Soldiers creates a vast, carefully documented, richly detailed panorama of the war in progress, showing Churchill strutting upon the stage of history with the irrepressible authority of a giant. It is a multifaceted portrait of a man full of immense contradiction an intellectual colossus with common failings, reckless and far-seeing, vindictive and generous, deeply humanitarian yet obsessed by power. It is Hochhuth's triumph to have fit together these disparate components into a powerful drama of epic proportions. M 'Soldiers' is an engrossing play. John Colicos' portrayal of Churchill is masterly." -Clive Barnes, The New York Times