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Fury dominates What a Do production

By Bridgette M. Redman

The men of What a Do's latest production were angry beyond a reasonable doubt. The dozen jurors in the classic Reginald Rose story were hot, temperamental and quick to jump down each other's throats. Together they directed that anger to create an impressively tense and dramatic telling of the 1957 jury room tale.
Director Randy Wolfe assembled an excellent cast, all of whom were fully committed to the dramatic tension of "Twelve Angry Men." The scene is set long before the play begins with Nancy King's opening montage of slides from the late 1950s and original, sonorous music by John Purchase. The music is consistently heavy, even when the slides show some of the more amusing aspects of 1957. Throughout the play, the music and slides make return appearances while the actors freeze in place and the lights drop. These contribute to the overall ambiance of tense drama.
Tom Koehler's set at the United Methodist Church in downtown Battle Creek easily reproduces a basic jury room with the long table letting the audience see all the jurors while a hanging window sill makes for a representational outer wall. This sparse set serves as the backdrop for the deliberations in which each of the jurors reveal their different prejudices and life experiences that affect their decision-making in this capital case. Because the defendant, a teenager accused of murdering his father, faces the death penalty, the decision must be a unanimous one in favor of guilt or innocence.
Each of the performers does an excellent job of creating characters that are representational of different segments of American society. Wolfe keeps them constantly moving through the space that is always filled with the 12 men and sometimes the bailiff. The intensity starts high and stays that way for most of the 75 minutes of the show. Every actor brings tremendous energy that stays strictly in character – whether the bouncy, eager advertising guy or the wealthy intellectual.
This production is an example of how color-blind casting can be problematic. Juror #8, the original hold-out who believes there is doubt about the defendant's guilt, is played by an African-American. While Ron Ware did a superior job with the role, it did mean that the production had to sacrifice what this play had to say about the more subtle forms of racism. In the What a Do production, only Juror 10 was racist, and everyone reacted negatively to his racism from the beginning. The play keeps open the possibility for the other jurors to discover their more subtle prejudices through the blatant actions of 10. In this production, 10 was alone in his racism and he was ostracized immediately the way he would be from a jury of 2011 rather than a jury of 1957.
Some of the best scenes came in the interaction of the immigrant and the man eager to get to his baseball game and the anger pouring from the juror who held out the longest in favor of the defendant's guilt. The conflicts between these jurors open up questions about how our personal experiences create prejudices that color our interactions with others – whether it is because of race, age, class or even relationship.
While the production might have benefited from more levels of intensity, it is ultimately a short play that is packed with conflict over issue that continue to plague America today on both personal and macro levels.

REVIEW:
'Twelve Angry Men'
What A Do Theatre at First United Methodist Church, 111 East Michigan Ave., Battle Creek. Friday-Saturday through July 30. $15-20. 773-744-8598. http://www.whatado.org

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