Zach Curtis, Mike Rylander and Mark Kreger in Urban Samurai's A Few Good Men. Photo by George M. Calger.
Aaron Sorkin‘s A Few Good Men (Urban Samurai Productions, performing at the Sabes Jewish Community Center, 4330 Cedar Lake Rd., Minneapolis, through Oct 10), despite its age (it’s very nearly 20) still packs a punch. It deals with a genuine and lasting quandary: the U.S. wants a battle-ready Marine Corps. Are we then, as an allegedly civilized nation, prepared to sanction the ritual and semi-legal hazings (the “Code Reds”) the Corps uses to keep its men ready to fight?
This conflict is at the center of the play. Two first rate Marines, Corporal Dawson and Private Downey, stand accused of murder for performing a Code Red on Private Santiago who, unfortunately, died in the process. Did they act alone? Or under orders? Are they willing to take the fall (as much as 30 years in the brig) to protect their beloved Corps? Serving in Guantanamo, these men must stay constantly prepared to battle the hostile Cuban soldiers arrayed around them. Part courtroom drama, part murder mystery, part character study, A Few Good Men is the working out of this age-old conflict. Undeniably effective.
The problem is that A Few Good Men doesn’t really want to be a play; what it wants is to be is a film (which it was, as you are no doubt aware, a successful Tom Cruise/Demi Moore/Jack Nicholson vehicle). The play is cinematic to an extreme: short interlocking scenes, a back-and-forth structure, frequent flashbacks.
Director Matthew Greseth deals with this challenge reasonably well, despite the shallowness of his budget and the clunky proscenium at the JCC. I did occasionally question his (over)use of energy-sapping blackouts and the sometimes stately pace of the show. For the most part, though, his production is crisp and straight forward.
And the acting is good. By contemporary standards the cast is huge (16) and space limitations prevent me from mentioning everyone. Still, I need to single out Nicholas Leeman who plays the lead, Kaffee, with a studied nonchalance niftily balanced by a fierce desire to see justice done. Dave Gangler plays Kaffee’s flippant and cynical male cohort, Weinberg, in a very nice turn. Colleen Somerville does Joanne Galloway, the play’s only woman character. Galloway is problematic. She feels tacked on, inorganic. But Somerville’s determination and focus makes her work. Finally, Zach Curtis, laboring under the long shadow of Jack Nicholson, resists the temptation to make Colonel Jessup a fierce military hardcase. Instead, his Jessup is understated, nuanced, and truly likable. When he explodes with near-homicidal rage, he is genuinely scary.
Courtroom dramas always work and A Few Good Men‘s long final scene is worth the admission price.
For more information about John, please visit his website.