A Few Good Men

A Few Good Men is a play by Aaron Sorkin. It tells the story of military lawyers at a court
martial who uncover a high-level conspiracy in the course of defending their clients, two
US Marines accused of murder. The play was later adapted into a film of the same
name starring Tom Cruise, Demi Moore and Jack Nicholson. Having never seen the film,
I was excited to see this production to form my own opinions.

The production featured an open stage set which was basic, but well designed and built.
It allowed the action to be performed on multiple levels with different parts of the set
used to create many different locations within the play.

Steven Smith gave a good performance as lawyer, Daniel Kaffee. He had a fine blend of
cheeky and seriousness in delivering the role made famous by Tom Cruise. He had
good stage presence and I enjoyed his performance.

Opposite Steven as the other half of the legal duo, Joanne Galloway, was Bethan
Horwood. Bethan gave a confident performance throughout and created a good
partnership with Steven as they moved through the play.

The pair were joined by Alex Brent who played Sam Weinberg. Alex played this part well,
creating a soft and lovable character amongst the harsh backdrop of the US Marines.
The role of Nathan Jessop, made famous by Jack Nicholson, was played by Matthew
Fisher. He was commanding as the Colonel who tries to cover up his wrongdoings;
delivering a very strong performance throughout the piece. I told a few people I was
coming to see the play and instantly was met with the response, “You can’t handle the
truth!”, which meant nothing to me at the time but certainly drew a reaction from the
audience when it was delivered on the night. The courtroom tension between Matthew
and Steven during that scene was excellent.

Patrick Baker and Aled Jones-Pritchard gave solid performances as Harold W. Dawson
and Louden Downey; the pair accused of murder. These were difficult roles to get right
but we were played well by the duo.
Bob Tucker was excellent as prosecuting lawyer, Jack Ross. He had a great character
and command when he was on stage.

The rest of the cast gave great support in the various roles played.

With a lengthy play such as this, it is important to keep the pace and flow moving along.
On occasion, the pace did drop a little with missed lines not helping in this regard. At
points the diction could have been clearer with the odd phrase getting lost.
The play was exceptionally well-costumed and everyone involved should be
congratulated for this.

I was inspired after watching the performance to check out the film and I could
definitely see some similarities between the characters I saw and those in the film.
Congratulations, RATS, on delivering a difficult piece of theatre. Well done.

The views in this report are solely of the author.

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