Swindon Old Town's twelve angry women

The all-female cast from OTTC's production of 12 Angry Men

Imagine ConAir starring an all-female cast, or maybe picture Jane Bond in Die Another Day. Or how about 12 Angry Men performed by twelve talented women? Anything is possible with Swindon's Old Town Theatre Company!

12 Angry Men tells the story of how twelve white male jurors decide the fate of a young Spanish-American accused of murdering his father.

As soon as the play became available for amateurs, OTTC director Julian Smith immediately rose to the challenge.

Julian Smith

"I originally approached it from the point of view of having a mixed jury but then thought it would be more interesting to put some women into the more masculine roles."

Since rehearsals started Julian became increasingly convinced that the play works just as well with an all-female cast as much as it did in 1957 with Fonda cajoling his male colleagues.

Having always enjoyed Reginald Rose's story Julian is fascinated in the way it explores people's prejudices and pre-conceptions and how personalities control decisions.

"I guess it's about human perception and how easily it can be fooled and manipulated," he says.

Nancy Heath

Juror Number Eight (played by Fonda in the film) is taken on by Nancy Heath, who, to begin with, was daunted by the prospect of taking on the role.

But having set out to create a female version of the all-persuasive Fonda, she turned to her own family for inspiration.

"I ended up basing my characterisation on my mother! She had quite a strong moral fibre and she was very clear about right and wrong."

OTTC's Mary Farragher, who describes her part as very "macho, physical, pushy and intense", takes on the character played in the film by Lee J Cobb.

Cobb's character was another that presented its own set of challenges, displaying traits that Mary found difficult to make feminine.

Mary Farragher

"I feel it's a real disadvantage having seen the film; from the beginning I said this couldn't be done with women and had great problems because I kept seeing and hearing Lee J Cobb."

But Julian believes it's been easier to get his female actors to rethink the parts, suggesting that the women know they have to be different whereas male actors would need to work harder to avoid simply replicating the characters in the film.

And because the play was written for men means that it has to go in a certain direction in order to make twelve male characters 'angry'.

What Mary and the rest of the cast have tried to avoid is creating a play about twelve slightly irritated women.

Mary says: "It has been extraordinarily challenging, from the point of view of the arguments and the way they go back and forth."

"I think anyone who has enjoyed the film will probably enjoy the play," says Julian, "but I think they will possibly enjoy the play even more if they have seen the film because they will see it from a new perspective."

With its mix of emotions, tension and drama, coupled with variations in pace and tone it seems that OTTC's production of 12 Angry Men is set to be a huge success - although one wonders how Henry Fonda would have coped had he been faced with eleven angry women - perhaps that's something best left to the imagination!