Audiences of Medicine Hat Musical Theatre's upcoming production 12 Angry Men will be invited into the jury room for a 1950's homicide trial and will watch as the 12 jurors deliberate the fate of the accused.--NEWS PHOTO KENDALL KING
kking@medicinehatnews.com
Medicine Hat Musial Theatre is switching gears with its upcoming production of 12 Angry Men, running April 20-22 and 27-29.
Based on the 1954 TV production of the same name, 12 Angry Men is an excitingly fresh experience for audiences, as it is the first drama MHMT has put on since before the pandemic.
The play is set in 1950s New York, inside the jury room of a homicide trial, and centres on the 12 jurors tasked with determining a verdict for the 16-year-old, who is not of Caucasian decent, accused of murdering his own father.
The play opens with all jurors but one supportive of a guilty verdict, but as the group re-examines facts, deliberations become increasingly heated as beliefs are challenged and jurors’ unique personalities become ever more apparent.
Containing no musical elements, 12 Angry Men instead explores topics more complex and serious, such as racism, democracy and justice.
“When I first started (preparing for this play), I would have hoped that this would have been an historic piece,” director Colleen Whidden told the News. “Unfortunately, the topics that come up around racism, around perspective, around all these sort of societal issues of the 1950s are still the same that we’re facing in 2023.
“The playhouse is definitely not adverse to tackling some of these some of these bigger issues. Of course we always like to have some of those light (productions), because we all need to laugh, we all need to express in that way, but we also should come out of some productions really thinking and really having deep conversations.”
Ryan Haystead, who plays Juror No. 10, says the topics discussed throughout the play will likely make audience members feel a bit uncomfortable; and not only does he expect them to, he hopes they will.
“If you go into something and it’s supposed to be dramatic and intense, and you don’t ever feel uncomfortable -you feel safe the whole time – I don’t think the job is really being done there,” said Haystead.
“We want (audiences) to be entertained, but we also want people to really identify how the story correlates to what’s going on in this day and age … Sometimes we fall into the trap of, ‘Well, this is the societal norm. This is the way things are,’ but this (production) really blatantly, over a period of an hour and a half, points out the flaws in that line of thought.”
A dialogue-heavy production, 12 Angry Men allows audiences a more intimate glimpse at each character – 13 in total if counting the court guard.
“Each character has their own perspective and has their own bias,” said Richard Grafton, who plays Juror No. 8. “So it’s interesting to watch and try to see how the script does that, but also how the actors are bringing that part to the table.”
Audiences can also look forward to seeing MHMT’s inaugural revolving stage, custom-made for this production.
No age minimum age is required to see the play, however organizers feel the production most enjoyable for audience members in or above their early teens.
Tickets for one of the six showings of 12 Angry Men can be purchased online at mhmtheatre.com.
