Backstage (in Dubai) opening night of "A Few Good Men"

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.