It’s an old adage, oft repeated, that the average audience size at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is seven. And it’s easy enough to find stories by newspaper hacks barely suppressing their giggles at poor souls ready to
perform their hearts out only to be faced with an entirely empty room. But take a walk up Edinburgh High Street during the Fringe and you’ll be fighting your way through vast throngs of people. Surely enough to go round?
Even if there are 3,100 shows at the Fringe this year, according to the programme which weighs in at a hefty 650gms). Alas, you soon realise that about 95% of those crowds are actually other performers desperately trying to persuade you to come to their show.
Mind you, if you read some of the newspaper coverage of the Fringe, you’d get the impression that it was just one huge comedy festival. Not true, of course, though comedy has perhaps taken on the highest profile in recent years. But there’s still plenty of drama to be seen, some dire, some outstanding. And this is where the Nomads come in of course. Going back to those audience sizes, the bare minimum to be hoped for is one that outnumbers the cast and crew. In this respect the Nomads’ production of A Few Good Men was pushing its luck from the start, with no fewer than 15 onstage and 7 more off. Add to that the fact that it’s a full-length play running for over two hours - as against the average Fringe production of an hour or so - and the odds against success began to stack up.
So it was very heartening to hear that advance ticket sales were good. Many people - perhaps most - don’t book until they reach Edinburgh, so auguries were even better. The venue at Greenside was a nice intimate space, and the tight schedule of other shows at the same venue - allowing just a ten minutes turn round time - ensured that from the time the doors opened the tempo could not flag.
The story is familiar to anyone who has seen the film version starring Tom Cruise, Demi Moore and Jack Nicholson - two Marines based at Guantanamo Bay are accused of killing a colleague while administering a “Code Red” - an illegal hazing for the man’s failure to match up to the high standards expected of the Marine Corps. But were they acting under orders from the base commander Lt. Colonel Nathan Jessup? Lt. Commander Jo Galloway hopes to be assigned to defend the men, but her superior prefers that the whole affair should be brushed under the carpet and has the case assigned to the inexperienced Lt Dan Kaffee whose approach is to seek a plea bargain. Galloway convinces him that they should take on the case with the assistance of Lt Sam Weinberg. As the trial proceeds, conflicting evidence muddies the waters, but eventually Jessup, under heavy pressure from Kaffee and enraged at having his authority questioned and his lies revealed, admits that he ordered the “Code Red”.
As the three protagonists, Lydia Kemish (the earnest Galloway), Stuart Norris (the maverick Kaffee) and Francis Pindar (the wisecracking Weinberg) all put in powerful performances, feeding off one another and deftly rolling with the ups and downs of the plot. As Jessup, Kip Parker was a formidable presence, menacing and slightly manic. I don’t know about the rest of the cast, but he scared the hell out of me! As the two accused Marines, Chris Poplett and Matt Hough were highly believable. I won’t try to mention everyone in the cast, but this was a fine ensemble piece and there were no weak links.
Nathan Farrell’s direction was tight and the pace never flagged. The setting was necessarily simple - no chance of elaborate sets here - and the myriad scene changes were efficiently handled by Amy Stringer and her crew by imaginative use of simple chairs and tables.
The British Theatre Guide website gave the production four stars, well deserved. It was a highly professional show and warranted its place high up the Edinburgh pecking order. It’s greatly to the credit of Stuart Norris that his vision of taking the production up to Edinburgh came to fruition, and thanks must go to all those who took part in various - sometimes gruelling - fund-raising events. It was a long struggle but the end result was well worth the effort. Congratulations to all involved - you’ve done The Nomads proud!
GASTON