Can you handle the truth? Groton Regional Theatre stages ‘A Few Good Men’
Director Patricia Montes says this about the dialogue in “A Few Good Men”: “Because it’s Sorkin, you need to say it right.”
Indeed, writer Aaron Sorkin, whose other works include “The West Wing” and “The Social Network,” is known for his whip-smart, word-rich, fast-paced dialogue. So when Montes began directing Groton Regional Theatre’s production of “A Few Good Men,” she gave the cast a little longer rehearsal period than usual so the actors could really get to know the dialogue and then could work on pacing.
“I’m a ‘West Wing’ fan, so I know how it’s got to sound,” Montes says with a laugh. “I’m asking my cast — just watch an episode, watch Josh and Donna walking down the hall, talking, and you’ll understand.”
Montes notes that the “Few Good Men” dialogue is very intricate, and there are a lot of points where one character cuts off another or where they talk over each other; those are more challenges that the performers needed time to focus on.
“It’s just such good writing. The Aaron Sorkin dialogue is sharp and intelligent and insightful,” Montes says. Beyond that, she adds, “The story is very compelling, and it sticks with you … It makes you think about who the characters are and what they’re doing and moreso how you feel about that because it’s not cut and dried. ... You’re rooting for our main characters, but there are moments when you question whether they’re really doing the right thing.”
In “A Few Good Men,” a Marine is killed, and two of his fellow Marines stand trial for being complicit in his death. A young, brash, inexperienced lawyer named Lieutenant Dan Kaffee is brought in to defend the two Marines, Dawson and Downey. That doesn’t sit too well with fellow lawyer Lieutenant Commander JoAnne Galloway, who had wanted to represent the duo herself.
The play was, of course, made into a 1992 Oscar-nominated film starring Tom Cruise as Kaffee and Jack Nicholson as base commander Colonel Nathan Jessup. Most memorable sequence: Cruise and Nicholson’s famously blistering courtroom scene, complete with the iconic “You can’t handle the truth” line.
In GRT’s production, Ken Schroeder plays Kaffee, and Michael McGuire is Jessup.
Schroeder says he is a big fan of the movie and of the dialogue, although he echoes Montes’ view that it can be challenging to perform.
This marks a change-of-pace role for Schroeder, who played Frank N. Furter in GRT’s “Rocky Horror Show” and Gaston in West Hartford Community Theater’s “Beauty and the Beast.”
He sees Kaffee a hero in a way and says, “You don’t have the freedom you do when you’re playing a villain or a character with a lot more flamboyance or an over-the-top persona. This is a very grounded character. He definitely has a noticeable arc — he goes from being very cocky to understanding more of what it means to defend people and to be a lawyer and the responsibility that he has with that."
McGuire’s turn as Jessup, meanwhile, marks his first time acting in a decade. McGuire has been focusing on his writing — his plays (including “It Comes From Beyond!,” which played in 2012 at New York City’s Horse Trade Theater) and novels.
McGuire was asked to read the role of Jessup when GRT was doing table readings of a number of plays it was considering for its season. Doing that session made him realize, he says, that “this would be a fun part to play … It’s just a great, meaty villain role.”
He is not trying to imitate Nicholson because, he says, no one can compete with Nicholson. Instead, he has to do it his own way.
“I think my Jessup is a little more twitchy than Jack Nicholson’s. … The character struck me as very paranoid on the page. I think Jack played him very cool, very calm and collected until his blow-up at the end,” McGuire says.
As for the play’s structure, Montes notes there are quick transitions between scenes, as if Sorkin were writing a movie or a teleplay rather than a stage play.
“We have a quick scene in this location, then we cut and have a quick scene in that location, and then it’s another scene,” she says.
As a result, GRT is going with less realistic sets and instead is just giving theatergoers a sense of where things are taking place. In essence, the stage is divided into a stage right where one office is located, stage serving as another office, and upstage center devoted to the brig. The two characters who are on trial for murder sit in the brig for most of the show, even as other scenes are happening.
“It serves as sort of a reminder to the audience that while Kaffee is out playing softball, Dawson and Downey are on trial for murder,” Montes says. “It never lets you forget the seriousness of what’s going on here.”
“A Few Good Men,” Groton Senior Center, 102 Newtown Road; opens Fri. and runs through April 9; Fridays are dinner shows, with meal at 6:30 p.m. and tickets are $22 (reservations required); non-dinner shows are Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m. (tickets $12 seniors, active duty military and in advance; they are $15 at the door for all others); (860) 629-8478.
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