author: Erin Klarner
A Few Good Men – the 1989 play by Aaron Sorkin which he adapted into the famous screenplay – is visiting the Howard County Arts Center for a limited one-weekend run in their black box theater, directed by Meghan Hackett of the Lumina Theatre Company. And it is well worth making time in your weekend to see.
With many short scenes, it is important to keep scene transitions quick so that the pace doesn’t get bogged down and lose the audience’s interest. Hackett and her cast handle this admirably, using different portions of the stage to allow one scene to set and begin while the other is concluding. Especially in a courtroom drama where much of the action necessarily takes place sitting down, this keeps the urgency and engagement up throughout the entire show. The dovetailed scenes are so effective, in fact, that the transition music included is actually somewhat distracting, and might better be saved for the longer set changes. (It’s also worth noting how gosh-darn impressive the expedient setup of the actual courtroom was; other companies with far less set to transition could certainly take note of the way Lumina Theatre Company handles this.)
Chris Rob is a tour de force as Dan Kaffee, the Navy lawyer assigned to defend two Marines accused of murdering their squad mate. He completely embodies the character and immediately draws attention when he walks into a scene (in a good way). His comic timing is superb when wisecracking is called for, and the pathos with which he delivers the drama is no less compelling. Even when he is on stage alone and not speaking, watching the wheels turn in Rob’s head as Kaffee draws you in. One can only wish to see more of his facial expressions in act 2 – we lose them as Hackett has him continually turning away from the audience on lines, although otherwise he occupies the space well.
Austin Mass and Emma Hackett as Sam Weinberg and Joanne Galloway, Kaffee’s sidekicks, form a supportive trio. The camaraderie that Mass develops with Rob is evident in their scenes, and he also has superb delivery and timing. As he says multiple times, he’s “not in charge of anything but socks and underwear,” but his presence shores up any scene he’s in. Hackett’s Galloway seems to struggle to find her footing at first, and portrays a hesitance and a shrinking back throughout that is emphasized by the directorial choice to leave her upstage and masked by her compatriots, or tight against the wings, when she has important things to say. You can almost hear the audience cheer when she comes out center stage later on. Unfortunately, Mass and Hackett, in addition to several other characters, are hamstrung in their attempts to connect with their scene partners by the tendency to turn out to the audience to make almost any important statement. This is clearly a stylistic choice, but it is not one that works as often as it is employed, and really takes away from much of the humanity of the story.
The use of body language to convey the story on a minimal set is one of this cast’s real strengths. In addition to Emma Hackett above, David Ellrod as the mousy Dr. Walter Stone and Mitch Markowitz as Isaac Whitaker are also pros at this. Markowitz, in particular, we could hope to see on the stage more – from the time he enters the scene to the time he leaves, he makes it immediately clear with his voice, face, and movement exactly what his relationships are to the others in his part of the story, and he is a joy to watch. However, one direction Markowitz seems to have received (Nathan Jessep as well, we’ll get to him momentarily) is to hop up and down out of his seat a lot. It’s hard to square that amount of rocketing around with the military bearing otherwise in evidence. Having characters standing for pivotal lines is a much better choice than the opposite – no one wants to watch a static, boring scene – but the movement at times feels more haphazard than deliberate.
The Marines, with their snappy 90 degree turns and carriage, for the most part have me believing that they have spent time drilling – if not in 119 degree heat in Cuba, then at least in a very capable marching band. Anthony Parker as Jeffery Howard is a standout here, conveying all the layers of a character who is very tightly regimented but also secure and even snarky in his skill at his job, in his smaller scenes and in his courtroom interrogation. Michael Kurek and Drew Sybert as the defendants Harold Dawson and Louden Downey share a similar ability, without the snark. Kurek really sells that his character is wedded to the Marines yet is also the kind of guy who would sneak food to a hungry soldier against orders. Sybert’s shifty facial expressions as Downey have you wondering what he is up to and agreeing with the legal team, “don’t put him on the stand.” The interplay between the two is solid, and they play the gag of not speaking unless ordered to do so for an appropriate amount of comic relief without detracting from the gravity of the scenes.
Christian Kirtland as William Santiago and John Dignam as Matthew Markinson are two who spend most of their time in the shadows. As Santiago is dead before the play begins, all of Kirtland’s scenes are flashbacks, and the lighting works well to allow us to see an adequate amount of his heartstring-tugging acting while maintaining the mood of the flashback. (In other scenes, the spotlights are a little narrow for what’s being fit into them, cutting off the edges of some of the vignette, and in the ensemble scenes and especially the courtroom they are simply too dim for this reviewer’s eyes.) Dignam begins the play in the group conferences as the base second-in-command, and suffers the same fate as Emma Hackett in being lost upstage, but he is really allowed to shine in his later scenes. His measured delivery contains all the emotions one could want and not only keeps his longer monologues from falling flat, but makes them a real highlight of the show.
No story is complete without a villain, of course, and Bob Cohn as Nathan Jessep and Kieran O’Donnell as Jonathan Kendrick are fun to hate. Cohn develops Jessep’s arc from friendly yet stern fatherly figure, the base commander who only disciplines you because he cares, to the toxic perpetrator of a conspiracy which left one Marine dead. It is incredibly difficult to portray a character who may already be fixed in the audience’s mind as a certain famous star, but Cohn succeeds admirably at making the character his own – forgetting that other portrayal is no stretch with Cohn as Jessep. The only wish I would make for him is that he have a little more physicality during his ultimate breakdown and arrest. Kendrick, on the other hand, has no arc, and his arrest comes off stage. So it’s equally difficult for O’Donnell to keep the character from being flat, yet he is very effective at that very thing. When you’re playing a “bad guy,” the best audience reaction you can get is “oh great, this ***** again,” every time you walk on stage, and O’Donnell certainly does. One wonders how his scene partners keep from punching him, except that his Kendrick is so intimidating.
Finally, no courtroom story is complete without a prosecutor, and in Lumina’s A Few Good Men that is Joshua Ikotun’s Jack Ross. A second act-only character, Ikotun plays an able foil to Chris Rob’s exuberance, pointing out along the way everything that the establishment military must hate about Kaffee and Weinberg. Ikotun’s dry humor and excellent timing are not qualities that can be directed, and the production is lucky to have his contributions. In addition to his witty exchanges with Rob and straight-laced behavior in front of everyone else, Ikotun spends a great deal of courtroom time not speaking, but still holds down his side of the stage as Ross. His energy helps to drive the final confrontation to its conclusion, which is not something that there has been a lot of in this show to that point. Audiences can expect the 2 hour and 45 minute (with a 15 minute intermission) production to carry them along at a steady moderate clip, emotional investment and pacing-wise. This means that there isn’t any point where the action drags – no mean feat in itself considering all the sitting – but Meghan Hackett also misses some crescendos that could really add to the piece, and which we see at the end this cast is more than capable of. Nonetheless, if you need a Saturday evening activity, consider seeing this show a bargain for a $15 ticket, and an excellent option.
Running Time: 2 hours and 45 minutes with one intermission
A Few Good Men plays two more performances today, November 23rd 2024 at 2:00pm and again at 7:00pm with Lumina Theatre Company, performing at Howard County Center for the Arts— 8510 High Ridge Road in Ellicott City, MD. Tickets are available for purchase at the door or in advance online.
