“The Red Badge of Courage” is a classic that weaves a tale of the Civil War, and the hardships and thoughts that the soldiers of the Union army faced during it. After reading Stephen Crane’s novel, which was published in 1895, it was easy to see why someone would take the book and turn it into a play – a play that Madison College Performing Arts will present this fall.

The story begins with talk in the regiment of the possibility of going to battle. Most of the men in the camp didn’t believe such talk. After all, they had been sitting around on their butts for such a long time. The story centers around a soldier named Henry.

Henry, who’s a daydreamer, doesn’t know what to believe. Henry daydreams about his life before the war, and how he often fantasized about being in battle and making a name for himself. He recalls his mother’s reaction, and sees the face of a pretty girl in his class.

Henry is an angry kid in the beginning of the book, but wouldn’t you be if you were willing to risk your life, and ended up sitting on your butt with people you don’t like instead? So Henry sits around until he and his regiment move out to battle.

The regiment has a small fight with the South. Throughout the battle, Henry just thinks about going back to the camp. But as the regiment is heading back to the camp, the small fight turns into a big battle between the two armies.  So Henry and some of his fellow mates hunker down to the ground to wait out the fight, but eventually are forced to fight in the battle.

Henry becomes scared, and doesn’t want to die, even if it is for his country. He has to choose to fight or run. Henry doesn’t want to get shot, but he doesn’t want to run and be seen as a coward in his fellow soldiers’ eyes. Henry stays to fight the battle. He is lucky enough to live through it, though many are not as fortunate. The Union soon retreats.

Just as Henry believes himself to be in the clear, the South comes back for more, and this time Henry and some other men in his regiment flee the battle.

Henry passes other regiments fighting while running and pities them. He is safe from dying, and they are not.

After this part of the battle is over with, Henry learns that the Union army held out against the South, and won. He feels pretty stupid for running away from nothing.

As he is walking back to find his regiment, Henry comes upon a dead body of a Union soldier. He is shaken up pretty badly because he had never really come face to face with death.

When he comes back to the place he fled from, Henry discovers that the battle has continued on once more. This time though, Henry stays to fight the battle.

The regiment slowly woke up, and began to move to a different location. They moved around a bit, and the South attacked them at the second location they came upon. The Union men were tired of fighting, as was Henry, who became focused solely on killing the Southern Army. Henry fought so hard and was so focused on the battle that he didn’t even realize that the South had retreated.

Memories of the past couple days come flooding back into Henry’s memory, and he fears that they will haunt him for the rest of his life.  But he comes to the realization that the memories will only haunt him if he allows them too, and that he needs to remember these memories, to make sure wars like that one never happened again.

Crane over explains every detail, which, in a book, drags it on a bit, but for a play would make the scenes come alive on stage. He really plays with the emotions of Henry, the main character. This makes for great facial features and movement of the actors. The book can be compressed into a play that takes less time than reading the story, which is a happier alternative for most people.