Set in 1944 at the United States Military's Fort Neal in Louisiana, this play looks at the racial tension and consequent unrest present in the ranks of African American soldiers during World War II.

Capt. Taylor, the white commanding officer on a segregated Army training base, has a problem. He commands a black company whose sergeant has been murdered. He is worried the murderer may be a white officer or the local Klan. A black captain, Richard Davenport, is assigned to investigate. Taylor tries to discourage him because he feels the assignment of a black investigator means the case is to be swept under the rug. Capt. Davenport perseveres and, as he probes deeper, he finds the black soldiers are as corrupted with hatred as the whites. Each one had a motive for the killing. Davenport solves the case and the truth is even more shocking than the murder itself.

A Soldier's Play was first presented Off-Broadway by the Negro Ensemble Company, under artistic director Douglas Turner Ward and managing director Leon B. Denmark, at Theatre Four in New York City on November 10, 1981. It was directed by Douglas Turner Ward and starred two actors who have become household names: Denzel Washington and Samuel L. Jackson.