Back Alley Productions is set to perform the Aaron Sorkin classic “A Few Good Men” at the Mars Theatre, 117 N Chattanooga St. in LaFayette. Performances are set for Fridays at 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m., April 7-22. Tickets can be purchase online at BAPshows.com or in-person at the box office. Visit BAPshows.com/season-passes.html for information on season passes.
Review for A Few Good Men:
A Few Good Men revolves around the tense legal battle and court-martial of two U.S. Marines charged with the murder of a fellow Marine, and the tribulations of their lawyers as they prepare a case to defend their clients. The trial focuses on two Marines accused of accidentally killing a fellow Marine in a Code Red, violent military hazing performed on low performing personnel. Daniel Kaffee, a Navy lawyer charged with defending the officers, wants to softball the case and get a quick and painless plea bargain. But he begins to suspect there’s more to the case than the obvious.
“The trial really pits two outlooks on America into the cross-hairs of examination,” said James Reed, director of the show. “It’s a story that is timely and relevant to our current political climate, especially regarding the balance of safety versus openness, without being politically grandstanding or alienating.”
Pushed by a female member of his defense team, JoAnne Galloway, Kaffee eventually decides to give the case an honest inspection. But, in doing so, crosses a high ranking military officer named Nathan Jessup, who secretly ordered the Code Red as a means to toughen up the now dead Marine.
“There’s an open, honest, but vulnerable idea of America seen in Kaffee that could be seen as naïve or easily exploited,” Mr. Reed explains. “Then there’s a harsher America as seen in Jessup that is suspicious of others, closed and secretive, but perhaps safer. These two worldviews come crashing into each other, forcing us, the audience, to examine our own assumptions about safety, the need for transparency, and to what extent the ends justify the means.”
The cast of local community actors comes from LaFayette, Chattanooga, Dalton and other towns in the northwest Georgia area. Visit BAPshows.com for more information or call 242-5672.