Plays 52 - The Foxhole by Eric Ferguson

4. The Foxhole - Eric Ferguson

The Foxhole is a one-scene play, running at around seven minutes. It is set in a foxhole in an undisclosed location, in which it appears that there is some kind of military conflict going on, the nature of which is never made explicitly clear. This short play is an interesting experiment in how men and women relate to each other in close quarters. Private William Johnson is already in the hole keeping watch over a road, and is about to be joined by Private Peter Jones who is introduced by the character referred to only as 'The Sergeant'.

Johnson immediately questions Jones about whether the rumours of his homosexuality are true and Jones is at first reluctant to discuss it; it is implied that this is a question that Jones gets asked a lot. Johnson claims that Jones' homosexuality is well known among the troops, but Jones won't be drawn on the subject and clearly just wants to get on with the task at hand. Johnson's extreme bigotry is soon revealed as he wipes his hand after Jones has shaken it, Jones quipping "My hand is the cleanest thing you've touched all day." and this is the trigger for what follows.

Jones begins playing with Johnson's homophobia, coming onto him with a series of suggestive remarks which bring out the penis jokes inherent in the characters' names; "Willie", "Peter" and "Johnson", not to mention their roles as "Privates". Johnson, his own breed of macho masculinity apparently threatened, begins to panic and rebuff Jones' double entendres. Jones appears to be revelling in this situation but Johnson is clearly ill at ease, yelling for the Sergeant to return and remove Jones. Much to Johnson's surprise, the Sergeant reveals that Jones' replacement in the foxhole is to be a woman, Nancy Bossen. In a complete role reversal, Johnson now begins to use all the 'lines' previously used on him by Jones.

The play is essentially a status exercise showing how Jones changes the balance of power after Johnson's dismissive but conspicuous hand-wiping. It then proceeds to show how Johnson, in 'stealing' Jones' lines, spectacularly fails to reclaim that power with his inappropriate advances on Bossen, who firmly rejects his advances.

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