Sissies & Soldiers

Sissies & Soldiers is a play, a comedy, which depicts the conflict between a father and son. The father, Sarge, has recently retired from the Army, after having logged thirty years of active duty. The son, Junior, is nearing high school graduation, as well as his eighteenth birthday. His great ambition is to, then, join the Army and become a Green Beret soldier. While in the Army, Sarge only spent minimal time with his family--maybe only a couple weeks leave here and there throughout a year--the result being that Junior grew up without Sarge's guidance for the most part. The dynamics of the conflict is that, now that he's back home for good, Sarge sees that Junior has grown into a "sissy," which he sees as being totally at odds with becoming a soldier. Sarge sees that Junior has been pampered by his mother, Sweetie, who reads him bedtime stories and allows him to take naps and eat chocolate ice cream all the time. Also, Junior's maternal grandfather, Grandpa, a shell-shocked veteran of World War II, who was with the elite Darby's Rangers, presents misguided ideas of the military to Junior. Junior's sister, Sis, initially doesn't want Junior to join the Army, afraid that it will turn him into a lean, mean killing machine and that he'll lose his sweet innocence. But she changes her tune after she sees Sarge bully Junior and even assaults him, at one point. Although presented from a comic perspective, Sissies & Soldiers deals with the loss of innocence and the impact of war.