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TWELVE ANGRY JURORS

Reginald Rose’s Emmy-winning tale of a single dissenting juror’s quest for truth and justice keeps audiences on the edge of their seats for ninety electrifying minutes in the Group Rep’s pulse-pounding revival of Twelve Angry Jurors.

The case being deliberated would seem to be as open-and-shut as murder cases get.

A slum-dwelling teenager has been accused of stabbing his father to death and a pair of eyewitnesses have identified him as the killer.

It’s no surprise, then, that even before beginning their deliberation, eleven jurors vote to convict the defendant of first-degree murder with a mandatory sentence of death by electrocution.

Unfortunately for the eleven members hoping for jury unanimity, one of them votes to acquit.

Then, little by little, this lone juror’s logical examination of testimony and evidence begins to plant seeds of reasonable doubt, first in one of his fellow jurors, and then another, and then another.

Since jurors’ names are never mentioned, we get to know them by the type of people they are.

The eldest (Stan Mazin) is a kindly gent with the wisdom of ages. Another juror (Tamir Yardenne) has grown up in the slums, but unlike the defendant, has not fallen victim to the mean streets.

Stephanie T. Keefer’s immigrant juror has come to appreciate this country’s system of justice perhaps even better than those born in the USA.

Cathy Diane Tomlin plays the jury’s most timid member, with a good heart but some difficulty committing to one side or another.

Paul Cady’s Juror #2 may be a tad slow, but he is honest and careful about the decisions he makes.

Not all jurors are as open and fair-minded as the above.

Melissa Strauss’s foreperson may seem a more honest sort than some of her fellow jurors, but that doesn’t stop her from wanting to convict.

The same can be said for Linda Alznauer’s Juror #4, among the most steadfast in refusing to change her vote. Richard Reich’s obnoxious salesman would rather be anywhere but on this jury.

The slick, arrogant advertising executive portrayed by Mouchette van Helsdingen wants nothing more than to get back to her job and her life. Mark Stancato’s Juror #3’s failed relationship with his own teenage son has turned him into a boiling cauldron of bitterness and bile.

As for the juror brought savagely to life by Belinda Howell, human beings don’t get more repugnant than this woman whose heart and soul have been polluted by hatred and prejudice against anyone she perceives as being “one of them.”

Last but most definitely not least, there is Neil Thompson’s Juror #8, a man whose desire for a just, carefully reasoned verdict makes him the defendant’s knight in shining business suit.

Since only five states still forbade women from serving on juries when Twelve Angry Men, as it was then titled and cast, made its 1954 TV debut, the progam’s all-male ensemble was already out of touch with the times, a misstep which the redubbed Twelve Angry Jurors rectifies by distributing the wealth of meaty roles among both men and women.

A number of director Tom Lazarus’s choices are downright inspired, in particular Howell as the jury’s most racist member and Keefer as the immigrant who reminds her fellow jurors of what it means to be an American, though I’m guessing not that many women were ad execs or stock brokers back in 1958.

Most importantly, Lazarus has elicited finely-etched performances from a cast who prove themselves as proficient at listening and reacting in as they are at delivering lines.

Especially memorable are Howell and Stancato’s venomous pair of naysayers, Mazin’s touching turn as Juror #9, Keefer’s thoughtful, caring European refugee, and Thompson, who gives the role of Juror #8 the same mix of wisdom and rectitude that Henry Fonda brought to the part in the play’s screen adaptation.

The authentic-looking jury deliberation room that Lazarus has designed gives the production a professional sheen as Frank McKown’s expert lighting takes us from late afternoon to early twilight. Shon LeBlanc’s costumes capture the late-1950s to nostalgic effect, though not all hairstyles are period appropriate. Steve Shaw is sound designer.