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A Soldier’s Play
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A Soldier’s Play

play by Fuller
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A Soldier’s Play, drama in two acts by Charles Fuller, produced and published in 1981 and awarded the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1982. Set on an army base in Louisiana during World War II, the play deals with the open and covert conflicts between whites and blacks that limit the possibility of personal growth and social progress.

The work concerns an investigation into the murder of a black sergeant of an all-black company. By interviewing witnesses, the investigator discovers that the sergeant had been a tyrannical sadistic man who hated everyone, black and white alike. He eventually discovers that the murder was not committed by white soldiers, town bigots, or members of the Ku Klux Klan but by a young black soldier whom the sergeant had goaded unmercifully.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.