Arts:Blog

Theatre Review: Twelve Angry Men ****

Lorna Irvine reviews a production that's 'tense, wise and still sadly as pertinent today as when it was first written'.

A sweltering summer night, in an Everytown, USA. Twelve men are to decide the fate of a sixteen-year old black teenager, on trial for killing his father with a switchblade knife during a heated row, in spite of his alibi of being at the cinema.

Reginald Rose's story is a classic--indeed, most of us know Sidney Lumet's celebrated film adaptation from 1957, with stellar performances from Henry Fonda, Jack Klugman and Ed Begley, among others.

So, is it possible to bring something fresh to this particular production? Of course, as Christopher Haydon's tautly paced direction proves. This is a story that endures--one of machismo, racial tension, bigotry, peer pressure and sheer bloody-mindedness. Put twelve strangers in a room, lock them in and pull out the proverbial pin. 'Twas ever thus.

Initially, there are mere archetypes among the jury: Juror 3, the boor (Andrew Lancel): Juror 8, the open-minded unassuming man (Tom Conti), Juror 4, the complicated guy with glasses (Robert Duncan), Juror 7 the small chippy guy cracking wise (Sean Power) and the out-and-out ignorant bigot Juror 10 (Denis Lill).

Only Conti's Juror 8 is willing, from the off, to debate the finer points, entertaining the possibility of the boy's innocence...until, that is, common sense and democracy prevails, and the men's foibles, failings and humanity is peeled back to its raw state.

This stripped-back production couldn't look seedier. Michael Pavelka's set, complete with grubbier wash-hand basins and oppressive, seemingly endless thunderstorms, is rooted, as with the dialogue-driven action, in universality. This could happen anytime--transport it to twenty-first century Scotland today and Juror 3 would be an invective spitting Robert Carlyle with James McAvoy as the even-handed Juror 8.

Possibly. Or vice-versa.

The truth, as ever, is more complicated--and this is at the heart of the phenomenal writing: dense with nuance, humane, wry, and poignant. The fantastic, passionate cast excel at drawing out facets which repulse and delight...tense, wise and still sadly as pertinent today as when it was first written.

At the Theatre Royal in Glasgow until June 27.