Live Performance Review: Twelve Angry Men

The jury room is bare except for a long table splayed diagonally across the stage with a water cooler and exhibit table at either end. The toilets are completely bereft of furnishings except for lights hanging from the 'ceiling'. The urinal stalls, hand basins and the doorway are drawn onto the stage, as a visual aid for the actors who erratically mime their actions. Stage actions, lighting states and sound cues need to be fixed and uniform, to avoid confusion and mixed signals as there is no continuity in the miming actions of the actors, or the sound and lighting effects used in the toilets.
As enjoyable as the production is, it could have been much more with better stage direction and cues, so the play flowed steadily with less confusion. More balanced performances and characterisation by the actors would have perfectly tapped the emotional strength of the play. However, the audience related to this production of 12 Angry Men, even with all its flaws.
…