About the Play:

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Male/Male Scenes.

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is a full-length drama by Herman Wouk. The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a court martial has been adapted by the author into suspenseful evening of theatre. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is a fictitious account of the mutinous acts aboard a ship that is rocked by a typhoon during WWII, the play is a pungent and timely look at the "my country right or wrong" standard of military life.

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is a the brilliant courtroom drama of a naval lieutenant on trial for mutiny in wartime by Herman Wouk, based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. A young lieutenant has relieved his captain of command in the midst of a typhoon on the grounds that the captain, Queeg, is a psychopath in crisis and commanded the ship and its crew to destruction. The play centers on the key question – was the Caine's executive officer justified in taking the helm from Captain Queeg at the height of a Pacific typhoon? And why or why not? Herman Wouk presents riveting arguments for both prosecution and defense. Naval tradition is against him, but testimony eventually reveals a devastating picture of the neurotic Captain Queeg's mental disintegration.

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial premiered in 1953 at the Granada Theatre in Santa Barbara, California and toured extensively before opening on Broadway in 1954 at the Plymouth Theatre in New York City. The original Broadway production ran for a year. Another national tour and worldwide productions followed, including Broadway revivals in 1983 and 2006. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and been performed in regional, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 19 male

What people say:

"Enormously exciting. It is the modern stage at its best." — New York Daily News

"Like mines laid by the enemy across a wartime sea, the plot points arranged by novelist-playwright Herman Wouk in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial still explode how and when they should." — Broadway World

About the Playwright:

Herman Wouk (1915-2019) was an American author best known for historical fiction such as The Caine Mutiny for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction. A best-seller, drawing from his wartime experiences aboard minesweepers during World War II, it was adapted by the author into a Broadway play called The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial and, in 1954, Columbia Pictures released a film version with Humphrey Bogart portraying Lt. Commander Philip Francis Queeg, captain of the fictional USS Caine.