11 1/2 Angry Men (Pleasance EICC: Pentland Theatre), as the name suggests, features quite a few men. Twelve actually, but the ‘joke’ is that one of them is very diminutive, hence only counting as ‘half’. This sets the scene for the 1950s time period, and its prejudices, in which the play is set. The scene is further set centre-stage with one big long table, with twelve chairs around it, a water station and that’s about it, except for a large wall clock, keeping time.
The scenario is that it’s an exceptionally hot day and the men are in a hurry to reach a conclusion about whether a teenage defendant is guilty of murdering his father, so they can all finish their jury duty as soon as possible. Stephen K Amos takes the role of the foreman and tries to bring things to order quickly, assuming himself to be best placed because he is English. He demands all of the men sit in the order of the numbers they’ve already been allocated and jumps straight into a vote on guilty/not guilty. It seems it’s going to be a unanimous ‘not guilty’ until the ‘half’ jury member disagrees. The rest of the play is a consideration of his reasons for not agreeing that the defendant is innocent of the crime. As a unanimous verdict is required, either he has to change his mind or all of the others do.
We hear from each of the jurors, often in turn, and hear about their prejudices and assumptions. There is some stage choreography here and while all of the men stay on stage throughout, they move around to enable side conversations to appear private at times. Each man in 11 1/2 Angry Men has his own backstory which informs their take on the likely guilt or innocence of the defendant (who we do not see). Ultimately it seems as if a unanimous decision has been reached.
But not so fast. There is a twist in the tale. But you’ll have to go and see the show yourself to find out what that might be.
11 1/2 Angry Men has a clever, thought-provoking plot, acted by men of great talent and I hardly watched that clock on the wall for the full 80 minutes. The sound quality wasn’t great to start with, but was sorted out pretty quickly. Definitely worth a watch.
Listings and ticket information can be found here
