Date: Fri 31-Oct-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: DONNAM

Quick Words:

Sherman-Good-Men-McQuail

Full Text:

(rev "A Few Good Men" @Sherman Players, 10/31/97)

Sherman's Latest Is Good Entertainment

(with photo)

By Julie Stern

SHERMAN - I would imagine most readers of this review are familiar with Aaron

Sorkin's courtroom drama, A Few Good Men , most likely from having seen the

film version, in which Tom Cruise, as the cocky young navy lawyer, takes down

an arrogant marine colonel, played by a smirking Jack Nicholson.

It doesn't matter. A Few Good Men is not something you watch to find out what

is going to happen; you watch it to appreciate the dramatic interplay of

personality and to enjoy the wisecracking dialogue between characters who

continually trade insults in a play so well constructed it is on its way to

becoming an American classic.

Now the Sherman Players are having a go at it, and it is a very good go

indeed. Set in the waning days of the Cold War (for anyone who does not know

the story), the play deals with a few lawyers in the JAG corps in Washington,

who become involved with the suspicious death of a young marine on the

Guantanamo Naval Base, where hostile Cuban and American forces stand eyeball

to eyeball "on the line."

Pfc Santiago, a barracks misfit, died during a hazing incident carried out by

his squad leader, Lance Corporal Dawson, and another man, Pfc Downey. As a

result, Dawson and Downey are facing court martial charges of murder. The

legal question to be decided is whether they were acting on their own, or were

carrying out orders given by their superiors, Lieutenant Kendrick and

Lieutenant Colonel Jessup.

Caught in the middle is a glib young Harvard man, Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee,

who is more interested in the improvement of his softball team than the

success of the case. He is perfectly willing to negotiate a plea bargain with

the prosecutor, until he is shamed by a hard-nosed investigator who outranks

him, one Lieutenant Commander Joanne Galloway. She wants to fight to save the

two young marines.

Bigger issues come into play, among them: the contrast between the frivolous

life of the Washington lawyers, who are basically civilians wearing their

officers' uniforms while they pay back their NROTC scholarships; and the siege

mentality of the career marines who have chosen a life governed by a code of

duty, honor and loyalty.

Equally important is the difference between the lip service paid to this code

by the two officers, and the genuine idealism of the one man who actually

tries to live by it, Lance Corporal Dawson.

Against a background of chain link fence and a huge American flag, director

Alicia Burtt has marshalled a talented company and put together a production

that is both gripping and entertaining. Newtown resident Matt McQuail is

perfect in the role of the bullying Colonel Jessup, who models himself on

General George Patton and has visions of heading the National Security Agency.

In a performance that is in no way derivative, I found him to be every bit as

good as Nicholson.

Another excellent performance is turned in by the veteran area actor Lonnie

Young in the role of Lance Corporal Dawson. Within the framework of the ramrod

posture and the perfunctory shouted answers of a marine non-com, Young slowly

reveals the inner workings of a man so committed to an ideal of honor, he

refuses to defend himself.

Jason Dougherty is boyishly charming as Danny Kaffee, though perhaps he has

studied Tom Cruise a little too closely. Eunice Wicek is properly earnest as

Joanne, and Billy Dempster is likable as Kaffee's sidekick, Lieutenant

Weinberg.

All of the smaller parts are beautifully handled as well, especially Kip Jones

as Kaffee's boss; Mark Spencer as Pfc Downey; J. Scott Williams as the marine

prosecutor; Kevin White as the malevolently religious Lieutenant Kendrick; and

John Wekerle as the presiding judge at the court martial.

Add to this the background of military music and cadence counts, and the

pageantry of all the uniforms, and the result is highly entertaining theatre,

the kind of play that holds your attention every time you see it.

A Few Good Men continues for another couple of weekends and it is really worth

making the trip up to Sherman.

(Sherman Players will continue with A Few Good Men through November 8, with

performances Friday and Saturday at 8:30 pm. There will be a Sunday matinee on

November 2 at 3 pm. Tickets are $12, $10 for seniors and students. CAll

354-3622 for reservations, directions to the theatre.)