Twelve Angry Men (touring) ★★★★

The drama, set in a 1950s summer in New York, begins with a judge addressing the twelve men of the jury, reminding them the case they will deliberate on is one of murder, in the first degree. As this is the most serious offence, if the accused is found guilty, the death sentence of the electric chair will be mandatory.

As the twelve retreat to the jury room, the overwhelming heat on the hottest day of the year foreshadows the rising tempers that will accompany the heated debates to come. To begin with it seems an open and shut case: a 16-year old boy is accused of stabbing his abusive father in the chest. The elderly man in the apartment below testified that the boy shouted “I’m going to kill you” and then he heard a body hit the floor. A second witness, a woman whose bedroom looks across the line of the L-train into the victim’s home, attested that she looked through the window and saw the boy stab his father.

Accepting the prosecution case, the foreman calls for an early vote between the jurors – but the result surprises the room. While eleven vote for a guilty verdict, Juror 8 is a lone voice opting for not guilty. What follows, in discussing the details of the case and trying to reach a collective verdict, is a compelling drama that exposes the divisions and prejudices of the individual jurors. Youth versus age, levels of education, wealth and poverty, and even racial differences, all emerge as fault lines between the members of the jury.