THEATER REVIEW : ‘Camp’s’ Disturbing Story

In 1917, a group of black soldiers in Houston mutinied, attacking and killing white civilians. They were later court-martialed, and 19 of them were hanged.

Celeste Bedford Walker, a Houston-based playwright, examined this disturbing chapter of American military history in “Camp Logan.” Mountaintop Productions’ touring version of the play served as an apt commemoration of Black History Month over the weekend at Cal State Los Angeles.

Most of Walker’s play is set in the barracks shared by five of the men. At the beginning of the play, as they arrive in Houston, they’re hardly firebrands. They’re eager to serve their country in the French trenches. But as the weeks pass, the indignities heaped on them by Jim Crow, as well as by their own white commanding officers, gnaw on their spirits.

Finally, they realize they won’t be sent to France after all. They’re valued more as manual laborers than as soldiers. Their military service will not be a ticket to a fuller form of citizenship.

Told to disarm in the face of danger from a white mob, they refuse. If they can’t fight the war abroad, they’ll fight it at home. It’s an idea that resonates far beyond the boundaries of Houston in 1917.

Walker takes her time building the tensions that finally explode, and it pays off, at least in the hands of the skilled Mountaintop ensemble, as directed by A.Y. Carriere-Anderson. Although the one white officer is a bit of a buffoon, the others are carefully delineated, and it is, after all, their story.

The actual carnage takes place offstage. Not only is this practical for a stripped-down touring version, but it makes dramatic sense. The real action occurs within these men’s minds, particularly that of their black sergeant, played here by Steven Larry with a gravelly countenance and crackerjack timing.