A Few Good Men

Military men lie to cover their butts and Marine honor trumps truth.

Okay, I thought, waiting for the “curtain” of “A Few Good Men” at Talent’s Camelot Theatre, that’s not news. Show me something I don’t know.

As the martial music faded and the chilling drum cadence crashed into consciousness, I saw the stolid and sincere faces of Casey Faubion and Brandon Manley, playing the young jarheads accused of killing a fellow Marine. Standing ramrod straight under lighting that perfectly painted their features cadaverous, they showed me all I needed to know within the first few moments. Past their Marine masks and behind their vacant hooded eyes, I glimpsed sad and troubled souls. Representative of a well-directed and well-disciplined theater company, Faubion’s and Manley’s characters were deeply plumbed, nuanced and fully present. Before a scripted word was spoken, I felt privy to their doubts.

Before a scripted word was spoken, I felt privy to their doubts.

The play, written by Aaron Sorkin, creator of TV’s “West Wing” and screenwriter for the “The Social Network,” was produced on Broadway in 1989. Set at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and in a court martial in Washington D.C., the plot is a dramatized version of a real event. The Marines are on trial for a death they claim was the result of a “Code Red,” an antiseptic name for the often-vicious hazing used to keep their fellows in line. As for this fatal attack on a Marine with a weak constitution and a proclivity for complaining, they claim to have followed orders.

While the outcome may be predictable, director Livia Genese, with credit due to her set, sound and lighting designers, maintains the unrelenting of tension with double-time pacing and only the briefest scene segues, made possible by a single, stark and effective set.

The Navy defenders in this courtroom drama are Lt. Daniel Kaffee and Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway, played with conviction by Dayvin Turchiano and Danielle Pecoff. Unfortunately, the possibility of romance—despite some chemistry between the actors—is foreclosed by a tightly-focused script that keeps them entirely chaste. (The truth is, though, I probably would have complained had the playwright sacrificed intensity for a romantic sub-plot.)

As the chief villain in the piece, base commander Nathan R. Jessep, Brian Fraser captures the fulsomeness of corrupted power. Thankfully, he maintains good order and discipline by avoiding any temptation to try to out-Nicholson Jack, whose line “You can’t handle the truth,” is all that’s memorable from the movie version.

Peter Wickliffe gives a stunning, ice-curdling performance in a supporting role as Lt. Jonathan Kendrick, a bible-thumping Marine who, more than the rest, has clearly drunk the Kool-Aid. His oft-repeated thunderous chant of the cultish code, “Unit, Corps, God, Country” makes the story entirely explicable.

This intense and satisfying production of “A Few Good Men” runs through Feb. 27.