BWW Reviews: TWELVE ANGRY MEN, Theatre Royal, Glasgow, June 22 2015

A 16-year-old boy has been accused of murdering his father in what is described as an "open and shut case". The evidence is stacked against him; however, as the jurors begin to vote it becomes clear that things aren't as black and white as they originally thought. One juror states that he thinks the defendant is not guilty and the jury are forced to debate the issue until the vote is unanimous. A guilty verdict would see the alleged delinquent sentenced to death.

The same as the jury, the audience are presented with the facts. As mentioned at the beginning, the evidence seems fairly damning. Tom Conti is juror number eight, the one who declares that he thinks the boy is not guilty. Juror number eight offers a different interpretation of all of the evidence given. Picking the witness testimonies apart piece by piece, he begins to persuade the others to change their vote.

Twelve Angry Men was originally a television play which was made into an Academy Award nominated film in 1957. I hadn't seen the film beforehand but during the play this evening I noticed that the television series Veronica Mars has an episode based on it!

The play is very cleverly written and is extremely enjoyable. Conti is brilliant and delivers his wittiest lines completely deadpan. Twelve Angry Men is a very intense and gripping piece of theatre and when the curtain went up for the interval I was surprised by how much time had passed. The play was first written around sixty years ago but there was nothing in it that stood out as dated. The setting is very simple which highlights the strong performances from the actors and the excellent script writing.

Twelve Angry Men runs at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, until Saturday 27th June.

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