JADAR

★★★☆☆

70 years after its premiere as a TV play, Twelve Angry Men is back on tour around the UK – but is it still relevant?

Bathed in sepia lighting, the chaos of the first five minutes gives way to a condemning vote: 11-1 not guilty. Our main character, Juror #8, has a reasonable doubt and slowly dissects the eyewitnesses account.

The accent are strong, sometime overtly, for characters who we learn have ulterior motives to quickly deem the accused guilty: tickets to a baseball game, a fraught relationship with a son, xenophobia. Biases are fraught.

12 Angry Men utilises closed time, closed space concept in theatre pretty well – meaning the action takes place in real-time and only in one setting, according to Greek ideas of plays. This claustrophobia is heightened by the fact that it is the hottest day of the year, with hot tempers and jumpy decisions. There are votes, then secret votes, accusations and changing of minds. The tables are turning very literally and become lengthways as the the second half shows the changing minds in the set.

The sound effects make great use of the thunder and yelling. The set is designed like the 1957 film with a water cooler running out of water, the large windows, the fan that begins to work when the lights turn on. Slowly, jurors change their minds across 2 hours 20 minutes.

The play reminds me of the concept of White saviour-ism very strongly as a young, racialised boy’s life is in the hands of 11 white, and one Black, people. Only slowly with the architect juror do minds slowly turn, when each piece of evidence for the boy’s guilt is slowly seen as facts coloured by the eyewitnesses themselves for attention, for glory, convincing themselves that the boy is likely a murderer rather than knowing it.

This instance of bias is seen strongly in Juror #3, who vehemently denies other interpretations of evidence, adamant that the boy is a killer.

A great cry at the end from the same juror who laments the loss of relationship with his own similar-aged son is seen as the crux for his personality and thus his decisions.

Twelve Angry Men is an example of a classic play which works well both onscreen and onstage. But whilst it effectively makes use of multiple meanings, and the then-groundbreaking story remains relevant, this new production does not offer anything new or exciting, so it feels dated and overdone.

Twelve Angry Men runs at the Lowry (Lyric Theatre) until March 2 and tours the UK until May 18.

Photo: Jack Merriman