Pittsburgh in the Round: Few scripts are as universally lauded as Reginald Rose’s 12 Angry Men. A tense drama driven entirely by conversation, the plot follows white 12 jurors in 1950’s America who are preparing to sentence a non-white, formerly convicted criminal to death around a small table in the sweltering heat of summer. The vote is unanimously in favor of execution – save for one man.
3 comments:
12 Angry Men has never failed to enrapture me in the thematic sequence and intensity and passion of the argument at hand. I definitely see the obvious correlation between this production and Election Day, whether the producer admits it or not. I, personally, am not excited for Thanksgiving Day political discussion, as it will be happening at my boyfriend’s family’s house, the home of many Trump supporters. I feel like this play can really encourage people to stick to their guns, and maybe I should watch the movie before I head over to thanksgiving dinner. The staging of this production, as discussed by the author, appears to be linear but also a bit odd. I can’t really tell whether or not the seating is in the round for the language, but it does seem a little weird to me that the points of focus do not allow for the audience to witness the expressions at all times.
I recently watched the film version of “12 Angry Men” for my Organizational Behavior class. The assignment was to watch the film and identify how Juror #8 could convince all the other jurors to switch which side they were on. It would be interesting having written a paper on this idea to watch the live stage version and how it differs from the film version. It’s also interesting to think about how few movies and plays there are that can be near exact copies of the script and the story as a whole. “August: Osage County” comes to mind. The script was pretty much the same but there are many extra shots that to help set the scene and b-roll in general. “12 Angry Men” is a great story and will definitely be making an attempt to see this show. I’ll be interested to see how they take on this small but mighty play at a community theatre.
I first saw "12 Angry Men" in a class during middle school, and really loved it. It had a message that has always stuck with me, that everyone deserves a chance, and even if everything points you in one direction, having an open mind to the other side it critical. Just recently in my Organizational Behavior class we used it as a case study of convincing people in a group setting. From that I really admire Juror 8, (and wish he/they had names). It may just be a fictional story and the circumstances were in his favor in that the case did have many holes in the evidence, but watching someone flip the entire story around just because he had a kindness that extend to someone that plainly appeared guilty. I have never actually seen a stage play of this done (although in high school I saw "12 Angry Pigs" not the same at all) and I don't know if I want to, I don't want to walk out disappointed or find myself thinking less of the piece. In my head I almost see it as a Disney Princess story, where all the odds are against one person, but they through own power change the game. I hope Disney never gets their hands on the content though, that would probably ruin the feeling too.
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