Twelve Angry Men
Theatre Royal Windsor
until Saturday 12th September
I was disappointed to miss Twelve Angry Men when it showed in Windsor, when Patrick Duffy was among the cast, so I was delighted to be invited to review this return by Bill Kenwright Ltd – particularly as the performance fell on my mum’s birthday.
What I hadn’t thought to mention beforehand was that my mum is registered blind.
We had what should have been the best seats in the house, but while I could appreciate the wonderfully detailed set, lighting, worn wood and expressive faces, my mum couldn’t really see any of it.
And suddenly I thought of something Sir Ian McKellen had said when I saw him in his one-man show in Richmond earlier this year. He pointed out that audience comes from the Latin audire – to hear.
Sitting beside my mum, that seemed rather profound.
Because Twelve Angry Men is a play you can hear. And one you can feel.
Reginald Rose’s 1954 drama puts twelve jurors in a stifling room to decide whether a young man accused of murdering his father is guilty. The evidence appears overwhelming, but Juror 8 refuses to simply follow the crowd and asks the others to consider whether there might be reasonable doubt.
What follows is far more than a debate about evidence. It becomes an examination of prejudice, anger, personal experience and the dangerous comfort of certainty.
In the intimate surroundings of the Theatre Royal Windsor, the claustrophobia is superbly effective. Michael Pavelka’s masterful revolving table allows us to change perspective almost cinematically, while the lighting, shadows and worn wood create an oppressive world in which tempers steadily fray. And the tension is palpable.
There are echoes of The Crucible here – collective hysteria, prejudice and the pressure to conform – but Rose’s jury room feels just as relevant today. One voice can challenge twelve. One person willing to question what everyone else accepts can change everything.
Directed by Christopher Haydon, this is an immensely talented ensemble, featuring 2 ex Casualty Doctors amongst a host of TV greats.
Gary O’Brien is superb as Juror 8, quietly determined rather than theatrical, gradually forcing the others to reconsider what they think they know. Bill Ward’s Juror 3 is the volatile counterpoint, his anger becoming almost physically visible – at one point his face literally red with fury. The cast, packed with familiar British television and theatre faces, make the twelve men utterly convincing.
And then there is my mum.
She couldn’t see the ingenious set or the subtle changes in expression, but she didn’t need to. She heard every shift in tone, every raised voice and every silence. She felt the tension.
Perhaps that is what makes this production so powerful. In an age when theatre can be spectacularly visual, Twelve Angry Men reminds us that great theatre can be created simply through words, performance and human emotion.
Bill Kenwright Ltd certainly has another hit on its hands, following the sell-out Heathers that had teenagers snaking around the streets of Windsor only last week.
I arrived wishing I hadn’t missed the previous production. I left thinking how lucky I was not to miss this one.
Twelve Angry Men is playing at the Theatre Royal Windsor until 12th September.
Reviewer: Klara Kallis
Photo: Manuel Harlan