With rehearsals in full swing, the first theater show this semester, “A Few Good Men” directed by Laura Downing-Lee, is well on its way to becoming something great.

The original playwright for the show, Aaron Sorkin, changed the way the media viewed politics with his White House drama “The West Wing” and “A Few Good Men” is no different.

The format of the modern courthouse drama is widely attributed to the way Sorkin wrote this play, based around the military judicial system known as Judge Advocate General or JAG. Sorkin heightens the tense energy seen in courthouses when naval captains with law degrees fight to defend or prosecute the soldier in question.

“A Few Good Men” grips viewers with intrigue from the start, and keeps the blows coming. The play is about a fresh navy lawyer and two marines who have been accused of murdering a colleague. The murder in question happens in the Guantanamo Marine Base where a soldier dies during a “code red” hazing. The two Marines accused of his murder, Lance Corporal Harold Dawson, played by Jalil Houssain, and Private Louden Downey, played Brett Mollard, attack Private William Santiago, played by José del Toro, during the night and he dies of respiratory complications.

Lt. Daniel Kaffee, played by Justin Brown, is then called upon to defend the two of them in the courthouse.

When the two are brought to trial, the marines claim they acted under orders, propelling a slew of military judicial action about who is to blame.

It touches along the same lines as the Nuremberg Trials after World War II, when Nazi soldiers blamed their actions on their superiors.

Jared Jacobsen, who plays Lt. Jonathan James Kendrick and has a background in the Navy, says, “This show calls up very important questions about law, honor and principal. In fact, what could be more relevant in post-9/11 America?”