A Soldier’s Play is a murder mystery one, based on an investigation to find the killer of a Black sergeant in a segregated army stationed in Louisiana during WW II. But whose story is told and dramatized? Is it mostly of the victim’s? Or that of a soldier of either race associated with him either positively or negatively? Or that of the “detective” of the case? Or of an officer in charge of verifying the perpetrator and getting him punished?
Everyone involved in the case marches onto the scene in suitable segregated files, but the action soon reverts to the office of company leader Captain Taylor (Eric Van Baars, rightly haughty), a White. He doesn’t appreciate the highest appointment of smooth, college- Davenport doesn’t only tell of but joins in detective acts, yet neither these nor his interaction with Taylor create the play’s titular title.
Does Ben Brandt’s noteworthy Lieutenant Byrd, who represents a black man who dislikes blacks who don’t suit him as much as whites, whom he just hosts disdain for, make a mixture that seems to show one person’s drama yet reflects everyone’s in the time and tenor of the play?
Is the murdered Sgt. Vernon Waters (revealed in all his complexity by Patric Robinson) the central figure of A Soldier’s Play? He’s the one who led the Black troupe. He was fierce and feared but still respected for his long leadership. He was also a blend of bigoted bully and demon when drunk. He caused the suicide of genial guitarist Private CJ Memphis (Leon Pitts II, as usual a WBTT stand-out actor in the part).
Waters’s charges, mainly members of the former Negro League of ball players, work together as if on their former kind of team transferred to the military base. They could be considered a group dramatic team. (Darius Autry, Jacob Smith, Terry Spann, Brian L. Boyd, Peterly Jean-Baptiste, Jerald Wheat constitute this "cooperative” entity.)
The main ones not leading drama or narrative but surely advancing it include the White officer Casey Murphy and a “great White officer understudy” for three different ones.That’s Larry Alexander.
Director Chuck Smith's had military as well as much directorial experience and it shows. He also directs at Goodman in Chicago. Theatrically, he’s made the most of his technical staff to keep the stage background large pictorially and colorfully. Up front, costumes, bunks, props bring the blacks’ experience especially up close to the audience. Lighting and sound excel throughout. A Soldier’s Play is surely more than one person’s achievement at WBTT.
educated Black Captain Davenport to investigate the murder and solve the crime. Self-assured Michael Mejia-Mendez as Davenport then seems to dominate narrative aspects of the murder as well as racial discrepancies and tensions on the base.
