by Reginald Rose

7.30 pm Thursday, 22nd to Saturday, 24th May 2003
Swindon Arts Centre
£5 or £3 concessions
Buy eight at £5 and get 2 FREE!

Reginald Rose's play, Twelve Angry Men, is a tense study of the doubts and prejudices of twelve New York City jurors as they deliberate their verdict in the capital murder trial of a young man accused of stabbing his father.

Locked inside their jury room on a swelteringly hot summer day, we see how easy it is for preconceptions to colour judgement. The only certainties we see are those that are built on human frailties such as boredom, bigotry, generalisation, and the herd mentality we can all fall prey to unless we think about things hard enough. The 'facts' before us are all open to interpretation, so what 'stands to reason' to one of us may be a set flimsy assumptions to someone else.

OTTC's production of Twelve Angry Men reveals additional layers of meaning through the bold step of using an all female cast, while staying as closely as possible to the original text. After all, why can't bigotry or misplaced rage be portrayed as female failings? Are women immune, or is it another of our assumptions as theatre-goers that women cannot portray such things, or that they do not feel them in real life?

First written as a television play in 1955, Twelve Angry Men is most famous in it's 1957 film incarnation starring (and produced by) Henry Fonda. Reginald Rose adapted his own teleplay for the screen, and also for the stage, where it has become a much loved classic among American theatre groups. There, it is common to see some women amongst the men. However, it is rarely seen in the UK, with or without female actors.