A Soldier's Play

Winner of the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, A Soldier’s Play is a murder mystery that takes a hard look at institutionalized and internalized racism in the U.S. Army during World War II. On the outskirts of a segregated army camp in Tynin, Louisiana, the tyrannical Tech Sergeant Vernon C. Waters is found murdered. Initially written off as an attack by the Ku Klux Klan, Captain Davenport, an African-American authoritative military lawyer, is assigned to investigate the case and begins to uncover an atmosphere of racial hostility within the camp. With mistrust growing on all sides, Davenport faces racial prejudice as he fights to find Waters’ killer. A Soldier’s Play (which was adapted into an Academy Award-nominated film) is an examination of race relations, systematic oppression, and explores the definition of “blackness” in America.