Find show info here on face book: Back Stage Event: A Few Good Men
Find a promo piece from the National here : The National A Few Good Men
Find a promo piece from 7 days here : 7daysindubai a few good men
Find a video showing the differences between Aaron Sorkin's stage play and the screenplay for A FEW GOOD MEN.
Currently on TV you can watch The News Room also scripted by Aaron Sorkin.
Please hurry if you want to see the show as there are only a few performances and they end on the 29th September. You snooze and you will loose!
“A Few Good Men” opened last night at DCTAC to
a full house.
After a long hard week and fighting the usual
Dubai rush hour traffic I was ready to be carried away by the magic that is
Theatre.
The Backstage production of this military court
drama was one of the best they have done.
It is brave to take on a play that is set in
the Public’s mind by a good movie version. They did it well. The actors brought
their own characterization to the parts and made them their own. The cast were
well rehearsed, word perfect and delivered their performances with confidence.
This allowed the audience to relax and engage in the plot.
Gautam Goeka’s direction is improving with each
show he takes on. The cast members who
were rough and ready beginners a few shows ago have become more comfortable and
natural on the stage. This shows’ crop
of first timers or first timers with Backstage brought with them invigorating
performances that were a delight to watch.
Raghd Coussa playing the cocky Lt. Daniel Kafee gets a
special mention from me because, not only did he give a warm and convincing portrayal
of his character, he is a fellow
Zimbabwean so I was inexplicably super pleased with him. I wanted to go and
give him a hug and say “well done you”. Of course that would have been way weird.
Go Zimbos!
Caroline Fernandez as Lt Com. Joanne Galloway
played a great counter point to the Daniel Kaffee character. She got it spot
on! I loved her eyes. They were so
expressive.
Chris Morton gave a great performance taking on
the role of Lt. Col. Nathan Jessup. A daunting
undertaking competing with the memorable performance that Jack Nickolson gave in
the movie version. Great timing and control meant that he did not fall into the
trap of going over the top in the climactic court scene.
Ahmed Rabieth as Lt Sam Weinberg side kick to
Kaffee, Pratyush Ghuwewla playing Pvt
Loudon Downey, the simple grunt caught up in the madness and Majoe Mathew as Capt. Julius Alexaner Randolph all gave delightful special performances.
The costumes were great. The make-up was not.
Someone really has to explain to men that that theatre lights suck the life out
of your face and you HAVE to wear make-up to counteract this. If you don’t you look
sick which worked for the character of Pvt Loundon Downey (poor thing I just wanted
to take him home feed him a comforting
meal and tell him everything was going to be all right) but not so much
for Lt Sam Weinberg.
Backstage gets so little set up time in the
Theater and it affects some of the technical aspect of the show. Come on DUCTAC
give the Amateur Dramatists a break. If the theatre is not in use let them have
a few free days to properly set lights and install the stage and rehearse. Just
saying…… Anyway away from my side rant. I
would have arranged the set a little differently so that the set changes would
be quicker. I would have set some wash lights on the back wall to break the
line and I would have used area mood lighting to make more use of the stage
space.
The music that was used was well chosen and
well placed. It would have been good to have some walk in music in a similar
vein to set the mood.
Overall we had a great night out. YAY! Thanks
to the Backstage Gang for their continued passion in delivering live amateur
Drama to Dubai.
