Alfred Benjamin is burning the midnight oil these days but with less than a week before the showing of his play, “In the Dark of the Night,” that’s understandable. The curtain opens on Nov. 11, Veterans Day.

Benjamin, who turned 100 earlier this year, is both the author of the 34-page, three-act play and its director. The cast is made up of 12 characters—men ranging in age from 69 to 74—looking back at their time holding positions like assistant engineer, radioman and tail gunner, and where those skills eventually took them in life. They are being portrayed by residents of Orchard Cove Hebrew SeniorLife in Canton, Mass.

The performance opens with an introductory statement, a short film and then the play itself, complete with a sizeable poem about the war, which ends Act One. The poem started it all, says Benjamin, who wanted to pen something for posterity; it became the centerpiece of the play.

The backdrop is a hangar at the Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland in 1995 during a 50th-anniversary reunion for a crew who served in the heralded U.S. Eighth Air Force, known for its bombing operations in Western Europe during World War II. 

“There’s some fiction, some truth” to the text, says Benjamin, a Boston native. “I never expected to bring it to life, but I wanted to relay some information about the war.”

It’s not the first time the play has had an audience. A few years ago, living in an over-55 condo community in Cape Cod, a different cast (a younger one, he points out) performed it on Columbus Day for about 330 people, raising $5,000 that went to five different charities.

It’s also not the first time that Benjamin has made headlines. On March 30, the day before he officially became a centenarian, a parade of local officials, police cars, fire trucks and other municipal vehicles circled his residence (with sirens on). They announced a bill filed in Benjamin’s name, SRes174, in the Massachusetts State House, congratulating him on his 100th birthday and his life achievements. He received a similar certificate from the town selectman.

The attention on Veterans Day, however, will turn to those on stage at 1:30 p.m. at the senior home. Benjamin has printed out 150 tickets (the capacity of the room where the play is being featured) and started distributing them on Monday; there’s no charge, though a donation of $10 is suggested, again to be used for tzedakah.

The actors won’t be wearing elaborate costumes, just air-force caps and regular clothes.

“My goal,” he says, “is to have people try to remember what it was like for these 19- and 20-year-olds, what these kids did to save the war. These kids put their lives on the line.”

Benjamin was 18 when he entered the U.S. military. At 19, he was already a second lieutenant and a navigator for 31 bombing missions during World War II, striking targets in France, Holland, Belgium and Germany. He earned 10 medals for his service, including five Air Medals, the Purple Heart and the French Legion of Honor. 

“World War II was an air war,” he says. “The bombings stopped the production of [enemy] airplanes, tanks; without us, it never would have happened.”

While he points out that two wars were never fought the same way, he notes that these days, it’s all so different technologically: “Now, there’s no pilots; there are automatic drones.”

More than that, he laments the fact that “there’s always been war. People are not civilized yet. I fought and bled for my country, but I’m glad I’m 100. Still, I’m concerned for my children and grandchildren.” Especially, he adds, because back in his day, he remembers “everybody trying to do the right thing all the time.”

‘I’m a glutton for punishment’

Benjamin has lived in Eastern Massachusetts his entire life. He spent most of his married life in the suburb of Newton, west of Boston, with his wife, Lorraine, where they raised their three children, and then moved to Cape Cod. The couple went on to see six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren (with one more on the way). They relocated to the senior home in Canton last November; three months later, his wife of 74 years died at the age of 93.

It was Lorraine who initially encouraged her husband to get that war poem published.

Benjamin has visited Israel a few times, and states proudly that “I’m and Jew, and I’m an American.” He follows what’s happening in the Middle East with consternation, one more example of the continuity of war.

But for now, the battle is back home; he’s literally a man on a mission. “I’m a glutton for punishment,” he quips.

Benjamin acknowledges that the performance “is not very polished” yet, and they are working around a grand piano on stage that’s too heavy to move. Still, the cast is rehearsing every day; there’s still time. And, of course, he’s seen much bigger challenges.

Years ago, he states as a reminder, America sent teenagers into the skies, headed to Europe. “They sent us on a mission impossible. It hasn’t happened since and maybe never will again.”