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Review
A Soldier's Play
Second Stage Theatre
October 25, 2005
Morgan Wycks
mwycks@nyconstage.org
The Pulitzer Prize winning A Soldier's Play by Charles Fuller is a well-made murder mystery that has as its purpose the examination of racial prejudices, not only among whites and blacks, but more importantly the prejudices among those within the same race.
In a southern army boot camp for African Americans during World War II, a dead black NCO, Vernon C. Waters, is discovered with bullet wounds and the stage is set for a courtroom investigation. The white office in charge whose prejudices extend only so far as the time period and place acceptably allow, believes there has been a cover-up to hide the perpetration of the crime by two white officers. The case is then handed to an outside black officer who discovers that the murdered Waters had prejudices against his own race, in particular with those he considered of the step'nfetchit, backwoods type thus incurring the anger of his own troops.
The play moves along its steady whodunit course adeptly while bringing out its themes better than the plot on which they hang. But one wonders why Second Stage chose to remount this particular play other than to introduce it to a younger audience. Fortunately, a larger portion of the patrons the night I attended were students who were obviously engaged by the material.
All of the actors are fine under Jo Bonney's adequate direction. James McDaniel stands out as the hated Sgt. Waters and it is his performance that tilts the psychological scales of internalized self-hatred while stepping up to bat for a better life at the expense of others. The actor's commitment is so strong and towering, one almost thinks that how the sergeant goes about his life is correct way .
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