Civil Rights leader James Meredith and 2nd Lt. Henry Gallagher had a unique first meeting in 1962.

Gallagher, a white Minnesota native and platoon leader for the 716th Military Police Battalion, had been sent to the University of Mississippi with his battalion on orders from President John F. Kennedy to protect Meredith as he became the first Black student to enroll in the racially-segregated school.

It’s this story and Meredith’s and Gallagher’s books that the History Theatre’s “A Unique Assignment” is based on, a commissioned work written by Harrison David Rivers.

The play mostly follows a 73-year-old Gallagher (Pearce Bunting) narrating the experience in the first-person perspective of his younger self (Kevin Farshaw).

The four-person cast is rounded out with James A. Williams’ stirring performance as Meredith and Kevin Brown Jr. as ensemble.

The show is carried by the super-sharp fast dialogue that will keep audience members glued to their seats. It’s necessary, too, because of a minimalistic set that consists of a few stairs and wooden slabs hanging in the air to show projections.

Though somewhat off-putting, perhaps the modernness of the set is to remind audiences of racism as an ever-present issue today, and not a thing of the past.

The world-building is aided by clever sound and lighting design that help us better understand where the characters are physically in the show — whether on a U.S. Naval Air Station or at the Ole Miss riots themselves.

It’s this subject that finds itself at the forefront of the show: how Gallagher and his battalion can protect Meredith amidst the aftermath of a riot at the university that leaves two people dead and many injured.

Gallagher soon develops a practiced plan to protect Meredith as he attends the university for the two months he is stationed in Mississippi.

But Gallagher reflects that he never got to know Meredith very personally. Instead of focusing on their relationship, we see Meredith muse on his reasoning for attending the university in the face of so much hate in multiple impressive monologues throughout Act 2.

It’s here that I wished that the show was instead narrated by Meredith, who seems to have a much more interesting story to tell than Gallagher. Meredith, a U.S. Air Force veteran himself, explains that his goal is not to get an education, but instead to exercise his civil rights and put pressure on the U.S. government to enforce these rights.

Gallagher, on the other hand, stands in for the (majority white) audience’s perspective. He muses about his old-school Midwest parents, his lack of experiencing racism in his life and he throws in a couple of cheeky references to his Minnesota heritage.

This also leads to a rather preachy ending about how the (white) audience should always think about breaking down barriers and advocating for anti-discrimination, going so far as to address us (“you!”).

But who can blame Rivers that he knows his audience well?

While the plot’s focus leaves a bit less than desired, the acting and technical elements of the show make for a worth-it original production. In the post-COVID-19 theater era of endless adaptations, a well-done original work is priceless.

“A Unique Assignment” runs at the History Theatre through April 7, 2024.

Anya Capistrant-Kinney can be reached at capi2087@stthomas.edu.