In general, A Soldier’s Play received very favorable reviews when it debuted Off-Broadway in November 1981. Critics were enthusiastic and audiences receptive to Fuller’s mystery. For example, Frank Rich’s review in The New York Times, calls Fuller’s play a major breakthrough and ‘‘in every way, a mature and accomplished work.’’ A Soldier’s Play is also ‘‘a relentless investigation into the complex, sometimes cryptic pathology of hate.’’ What Rich calls a ‘‘skillful portraiture of a dozen characters’’ creates ‘‘a remarkable breadth of social and historical vision.’’ Rich is also enthusiastic about the cast, especially Charles Brown as Davenport, Denzel Washington as Peterson, and Peter Friedman as Taylor, but Rich’s greatest praise is for Adolphe Caesar’s performance of Waters, a role that is ‘‘hateful ... one moment and a sympathetic, pitiful wreck the next.’’ Referring to Douglas Turner Ward’s direction as ‘‘superlative,’’ Rich notes that Fuller’s play ‘‘tirelessly insists on embracing volatile contradictions because that is the way to arrive at the shattering truth.’’ John Beaumont’s review for The Christian Science Monitor is another emphatic endorsement of Fuller’s play. Beaumont calls attention to Fuller’s ‘‘carefully written, tautly dramatic scenes [which] are filled with racial-psychological insights.’’ But this reviewer also observes Fuller’s use of comedic and raunchy material that sounds like the authentic voice of barracks talk. Beaumont also credits an excellent cast and the ‘‘admirable staging by Ward for the play’s success.

Another endorsement comes from Edwin Wilson at the The Wall Street Journal. Wilson’s review calls A Soldier’s Play ‘‘a skillfully wrought, thoroughly suspenseful detective story.’’ But Wilson points out that Fuller goes beyond a mystery to create, ‘‘one of the most even-handed, penetrating studies of relations among blacks-as well as their relations with whites-that we have yet seen.’’ As is the case with other reviewers, Beaumont also singles out the cast and director as deserving special commendation, and Fuller’s ‘‘complex web of con- flicting attitudes and emotions’’ as strong elements of the play. Additional ratification for Fuller’s play is supplied by Douglas Watt of the Daily News. Calling A Soldier’s Play ‘‘an absorbing, interestingly- layered drama’’ that could use a bit of tightening, Watt states that an evening at this play is ‘‘one of the more satisfying ones in town.’’ While Watt praises Brown and Friedman’s performances, he has special kudos for Washington, Caesar, and the other actors who portray the enlisted men; these men, he says, ‘‘make up the heart of the play.’’ Watt points to this play as Fuller’s ‘‘best achievement to date.’’ These words are echoed by Clive Barnes of the New York Post, who writes that ‘‘Fuller is revealing himself as a playwright of great sensibility ... [who] must be watched and, even more, cherished.’’ After having complimented Ward’s direction and the exceptional work of Caesar and Friedman, Barnes says of Brown, that ‘‘he is developing into a consummate actor’’ whose performance is the best of a fine cast.

Additional praise for Fuller is also provided by Jack Kroll of Newsweek. Kroll declares that this latest Fuller play ‘‘is a work of great resonance and integrity, bound to be one of the best American plays of this season.’’ The story that Fuller is telling, writes Kroll, is ‘‘humanized and dramatized with a deep understanding and a sense of fatality that translate into riveting and revelatory dramatic action.’’ Kroll also has praise for the cast, noting the performances of Brown and Caesar as particularly remarkable. A more mixed review is offered by T.E. Kalem of Time , who, while dismissing the investigation as a ‘‘dry studies exercise,’’ focuses on the way in...