A Soldier's Play

In a segregated Louisiana army camp in 1944, Vernon C. Waters, the sergeant of a Black company, has been murdered. Captain Taylor, the white C.O., worries the murderer may be a white officer or the local Klan. Richard Davenport, a Black captain, is assigned to investigate. Taylor, fearing the assignment of a Black investigator means the case is to be swept under the rug, attempts to discourage Davenport. But Davenport perseveres, discovering deep-seated hatred and corruption among the men in the company. Despite each soldier's motive for the killing, Davenport eventually solves the case, revealing a truth more shocking than the murder itself.

A Soldier's Play was first presented off-Broadway by the Negro Ensemble Company, under artistic director Douglas Turner Ward and managing director Leon B. Denmark, at Theatre Four in New York City on November 10, 1981. It was directed by Douglas Turner Ward. On January 21, 2020, A Soldier's Play made its Broadway debut at the American Airlines Theatre. Directed by Kenny Leon, the production featured Blair Underwood, David Alan Grier and Jerry O'Connell.