Royal Underground Theatre Company Will Present A FEW GOOD MEN in Berkeley

The Royal Underground Theatre Company will present Aaron Sorkin's A Few Good Men, directed by Enrico Banson, running June 5 through 21, 2026 at Live Oak Theater in Berkeley. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 2 PM. A special post-show cast and crew talkback will take place on Sunday, June 14. Tickets are $35 and information is available at theroyalunderground.org.

Long before Hollywood turned it into a cultural touchstone, Aaron Sorkin's blistering legal drama electrified Broadway with its mix of courtroom suspense, military pressure, and razor-sharp moral combat. In this gripping judicial thriller, one misfit U.S. Marine is dead, two others stand accused of killing him, and an ambitious team of young military lawyers begins uncovering a conspiracy that reaches far beyond a single courtroom.

Inspired by actual events at Guantanamo Bay in 1986, A Few Good Men crackles with the quickfire intelligence and verbal precision that would later define Sorkin's work on The West Wing, The Newsroom, and The Social Network. The result is a taut, often funny, entertaining, and deeply unsettling play about duty, loyalty, institutional self-protection, and the cost of telling the truth in a room built to resist it.

Royal Underground's production approaches the play not simply as a famous courtroom drama, but as a warning shot. A Few Good Men tears into the toxic internal culture of the United States military, exposing the danger of systems that prize unquestioning loyalty over moral courage and wrap their worst impulses in the language of patriotism. At a time when the country continues to wrestle with truth, power, gender, leadership, and the meaning of public service, the play feels less like a period piece and more like an alarm bell.

"What makes A Few Good Men feel urgent now is not simply the famous question of who gave the order," says director Enrico Banson. "It is the larger question the play keeps pushing at us: what happens to truth when power decides it is inconvenient? We all know the line, 'You can't handle the truth,' but that line hits differently in a country where truth itself feels constantly argued over, buried, branded, or weaponized. Underneath the courtroom thriller is a fight over loyalty, ego, rank, gender, patriotism, and who gets believed when the room is built to protect itself."

"As a filmmaker, I'm drawn to the cinematic force of the story, but what fascinates me most is how theatrical the play is," Banson continues. "It lives and dies on language, rhythm, pressure, and bodies in conflict in a room. I live in that grey area between cinema and theatre, and Sorkin's writing pulls both sides of me into the work. That is what makes this play such an exciting challenge to direct."

The creative team includes Aaron Sorkin, playwright; Enrico Banson, director; Jerianne Banson, producer; Maggie Carpenter, costume supervision; Mark Decker, lighting design; Marty Farrell, set coordination; and Bobby Scofield, stage manager.

The cast features Curtis Henry as Lance Corporal Harold W. Dawson, Leonard Dale Magat as Private First Class Louden Downey, Arup Chakrabarti as LTJG Sam Weinberg, Kieran Cross as LTJG Daniel A. Kaffee, María Cecilia Flores as Lt. Commander Joanne Galloway, Tony Baca as Captain Whitaker and Judge Randolph, Perry Aliado as Captain Markinson, David Patiño as PFC William T. Santiago, Harrison Alter as Lt. Col. Nathan Jessep, Thomas Nguyen as Lt. Jonathan Kendrick, Nelson Brown as Lt. Jack Ross, Tyler Hedrick as Corporal Dunn, Sergeant at Arms and others, Amosi Morgan as Lawyer #1, Tom and others, and David Silverberg as Lawyer #2, Hammaker and others.

Critical praise for the play includes "Enormously entertaining" from New York Daily News, "Sorkin is the ratatat duke of dialogue, reigning king of the walk-and-talk" from Entertainment Weekly, and "A brilliant, intelligent, cutting, shivering and even nasty script" from The Independent.

A Few Good Men runs approximately two hours, including one intermission. The production contains mature themes, strong language, references to violence and suicide, hazing, abuse of power, imitation firearms, sudden loud sound effects, and flashing lights. Recommended for ages 15 and up.

Follow The Royal Underground Theatre Company on Instagram at @theroyalundergroundtheatre and on Facebook.

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Upcoming Shows

A Few Good Men

6/5 - 6/21/2026