All Good Men
All Good Men is choreographer Robert Bettmann’s dance/theatre adaptation of a Dylan Thomas film script. The storyline follows a main character, her wife, friends, and colleagues as they are challenged to define themselves in relationship to actions around them.
Based on actual events that occurred in the nineteenth century, All Good Men explores how individuals are pushed and pulled along slippery moral slopes. The title is derived from the phrase, “All good men have to do for evil to win is nothing.” All Good Men premiered in the Capital Fringe Festival July 16th, 2009. Cast for the recorded script: Fani Cyd Geroff, Marisha Bourgeois, Ashtan Moore, Dane Figueroa Edidi, Robert Bettmann; Cast for the stage: William Smith, Rachel Merga, Emily Horton, Robert Bettmann, Sylvana Sandoz, Jessica McCoy.
Performance clip, “How Hard”
Washington Examiner Review:
“Somewhere over Washington, D.C. this week Dylan Thomas is smiling… Robert Bettmann took Thomas’ film script ‘The Doctor and the Devils’ and churned it with his creative sensibility until the cream rose to the top. Skimming off the lyricism he created a new work, ‘All Good Men’ that premiered Thursday night at D.C.’s Capital Fringe Festival with an additional performance tonight…
“It is truly a jewel and a tribute to the commonalities between poetry, literature and dance. Using a dramatic presentation of the script as his score Bettmann creates a symphony of movement literally bringing form and texture to the content.”
Subsequent to the evening-length premiere the company created a gallery installation of the work, “The Fun House”, for performances at the Hamiltonian Gallery.