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Sunday, April 1, 2012

12 Angry Men - theatre season 2012

Despite threatening to be renamed ‘11 awkward men’, this production had a confident sense of where it was going from the start. Combining inventive staging and sensitive direction, it was a very convincing piece of work, and a tribute to a good-natured teamwork rare in this age group.  

Deftly placing the jury in amongst the audience, restricting numbers and covering the walls behind us with newspaper pages to increase a sense of bureaucratic claustrophobia – the directors had clearly considered their ideas well to conceive of this staging. The unusual addition of a dress code for the audience brought people further into the drama. A real high point, however, was the unexpected, illuminated tableau sequence, which gave a movie montage effect through the doors of the MPH where we saw the jurors jostling together: a change of perspective, which was very original, imaginative and pleasing.

The performances were sincere and, in cases, quite forceful; Tudor, especially, realising the subtlety of his role. On the whole, the cast was well balanced and we enjoyed Mette’s arrogant youthfulness, Leo’s aggressive dominance, Eric’s quizzical alien. Parikshit managed a light touch with his thoughtful, braces and jeans, number 6.  Paresh, several decibels louder than everyone else, was well cast as the impatient socialite, and there were confidently assured performances from Mark, Kiren and Rebecca as well.

The directors are to be commended for helping all the actors to put themselves into it with feeling and force. However, especially those who adapted the script are to be congratulated, because what emerged was a tightly written, cut and performed, engaging drama, which held us all in the witness box from start to finish. Well done!
Benedict Clark
Head of Aesthetics

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