THEATRE REVIEW: 12 Angry Men ★★★

12 Angry Men
Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham
Saturday 7th March 2015

Its the 1950's, and a boy has been sent to court after his female neighbor, living directly opposite, supposedly see's him stab his father just after midnight one night. As the play starts, the Jury, consisting of 12 males, have to now come to a decision whether the boy in question is guilty of his crimes.

Now the fascinating thing about this production is not whether the boy is actually guilty or not, as throughout the course of the production many jury members have doubt's and subsides with the latter, but its more about the way of trying to show any means of the boy not being guilty, and how each individual member of the jury come to their decision.

The staging is beautiful, with a large scale set that has working lights, fans and taps, and the whole sense of the surroundings is another reason why you feel like you are so involved in the action unfolding on stage. I will say that at times I did drift away, but these were mainly at the points that they called breaks, and even though each time they voted amongst themselves you knew that the ratio of Guilty to Not Guilty was going to slide, I still felt completely compelled by it, as it was interesting finding out why each individual chose to turn that way.

Even though at times also the accents felt pushed and dodgy, the overall acting ability was excellent as well. I didn't really know what to expect before watching, but the way each actor knew where to stand or sit at certain points, and the way the relationships and arguments unfolded on stage,it really did surprise me by how much I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.

Overall, 12 Angry Men is a compelling piece of theatre that really delves to the heart of those in a jury, and let's you see the other side of those courtroom cases, and see what happens behind closed doors.