A Few Good Men comes to stage
In Simply Theatre’s production of Aaron Sorkin’s courtroom drama A Few Good Men, Gillian Klassen is a bit like a queen bee. Her character, Lt.-Cmdr. Joanne Galloway, is the only female with 16 male co-stars.
Sorkin wrote this award-winning play in 1989 when he was working as a bartender in a Broadway theatre. Three years later, he would turn it into a film and receive an Academy Award nomination for best-adapted screenplay.
The film’s star-studded cast included Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise, Kevin Bacon and Kiefer Sutherland with Demi Moore as Galloway. Simply Theatre’s male cast includes Bryan Smith, Greg Spielman, Stuart Bentley, Michael Brown, Greg Miller, Lucas Seeger and Issiah Sanghera.
“The film received so much attention most people don’t realize it was originally a play and that it is so very well written. It is filled with clever intricacies. There are some great moments in the play that never made it into the movie,” says Klassen, who plays a naval lawyer assigned to defend two marines accused of murdering a
fellow marine.
Klassen says she loves Joanne’s conviction and her passion: “She’s a woman in a male-dominated society and the system is against her.”
Klassen says she suffers none of the same prejudices or pressures in her own life. “I may be the only female on stage but I am anything but the only female in the room at rehearsals.
“The crew members working on this production are mostly women.
“It doesn’t feel like a boys’ club either because everyone from cast to crew to directors are all dedicated to telling this powerful story and it happens to be a story we’re all passionate about.
“As far as women’s rights, the play is more relevant than it should be because of what’s happening in the United States at the moment.”