![]() ![]() The Ribbon Creek incident is not mentioned in the drama, but there is a lot of dialogue about Marine training and the history of women in the Marines and how they have, and have not, gotten along with the men in the Corps. The deaths caused an uproar in the country and changed training rules. A number of marines, some pretty famous, testified that drill instructors routinely punished their men that way. A drill instructor, male, in an effort to give his men more unity, made them take a similar night hike through the swamps. It happened at Parris Island in 1956 and was named the Ribbon Creek Incident. ![]() What was she thinking? It makes no sense.Īnderson based his play on an actual training disaster. Caine screwed up on this deadly night march. The strength of the play is that you never know what is going to happen next and that you just can’t believe that Sgt. Colonel Eden knew some highly placed government officials, to whom she told everything about the deaths in late night phone calls? Why does prosecutor Gill mercilessly harass Caine? All of her character witnesses have to bow their heads at the end of their time on the stand, though, and admit that she was drinking, she misread the tidal charts and she killed five marines.īut there is always another twist. There is testimony from Sergeant Major Clayton Williams, a friend of her dad’s. ![]() Colonel Sandra Eden, a woman who quickly earns the trust and admiration of the audience. She looks guilty, despite testimony on her behalf by Lt. She actually wants to plead guilty just to maintain the image of the Marine Corps. Playwright Anderson has created wonderful, deep characters who continually vie for the attention of the Judge and the audience.Įverybody knows how tough Marine drill instructors are and Caine is one of the toughest. Caine is guilty or not – until the final minute of the drama. The play twists and turns in delicious fashion and you never know if Sgt. Her lawyers, Vincent Stone and his assistant, Emily Ginsberg, who has led a hard life herself, try to befriend Sgt. Caine is a downright hard, cold nasty officer who does nothing to help her case. Is there something or somebody lurking in the shadow of the Parris Island Marine Corps camp that could help her? Her lawyers and friends in the Marines dig for information, a really sassy judge tries to help her and the prosecutor and a former State Department official with big political ambitions, starts to make mistakes. She even had a few sips of a beer with a friend in the Marines prior to the night exercises. She admitted that she took her men into the tidal basin to bring about unity and misread weather reports. The Trial of Donna Caine is that good.Īt the start of the play, smartly directed by David Saint, it appears that Sgt. The striking play, that opened Saturday at the George Street Playhouse, in New Brunswick, N.J., is up there with the military court room film A Few Good Men, starring Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson. What followed is an intense, winding, twisting fictional courtroom drama, The Trial of Donna Caine, by Walter Anderson, full of heroes and villains, with Caine’s future, and that of the Corps, on the line. Then, suddenly, two crackerjack lawyers were brought in to defend Caine by the grandfather of one of the troops killed. The Marines court martialed Caine and her prospects looked grim. It was a tragedy covered by CNN and other networks, focused national attention on Caine and the Corps and damaged the defense Department’s program to further integrate women into the Corps. Five of them, two men and three women, died. Marines on a march through a tidal swamp at Parris Island, South Carolina, to bring the discordant group a little discipline. Something went terribly wrong on the night that rough, tough staff sergeant Donna Caine, a seasoned drill instructor, led her regiment of U.S. ![]()
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