A Few Good Men

Synopsis

Two marines are on trial for their part in the death of a colleague - the Army is expecting a decent cover-up but instead gets a full blown trial of its own mentality.

Our Review:

7 September 2005

From The West Wing to the West End, writer Aaron Sorkin sees a belated London production for A Few Good Men, the play that originally marked his Broadway playwriting debut back in 1989. Soon after writing it, Sorkin was promptly lost to film (including the screenplay to a 1992 movie version of this play) and television, and is yet to return to the theatre.

It's a pity, because he has a keen eye (and ear) for the telescoping of action and focusing of powerful but intimate scenes, as well as giving the specific events under examination a wider canvas to resonate around. That said, the intricate patterning of short scenes that back up and over each other, and the volley of changes of settings, are also intrinsically televisual, so it's no wonder he's found his natural home there.

The form that Sorkin has adopted for the play also successfully disguises its rather conventional content. This is just a traditional courtroom drama, in which two yo...

Read more of the review

Latest User Review

193.37.182.1) - 27 November 2005:

I really enjoyed this show. It remains very satiricual, and in its best moments very thought-provoking. Rob Lowe is a supremely gifted actorwho excells in a play of this nature, and his courtroom scenes with Jack Ellis are the higlight of the evening. John Barrowman seems very under-used, and I thought Surranne Jones did pretty well in her part. Overall a really good night at the theatre...

Read more and add your own review

Related Whatsonstage.com Articles

Photos: Good Men Lowe & Sorkin Love UK Post-7/7 More»