Theater Reviews

Nov 13, 2002 - Reno Little Theater's "Twelve Angry Men"

By Jack Neal

First produced in 1954 for CBS Television's splendid "Studio One," playwright Reginald Rose's Emmy-winning "Twelve Angry Men" soon became a compelling 1957 film starring Henry Fonda and Lee J. Cobb, then a first-rate 1997 TV presentation starring George C. Scott and Jack Lemon.

Now it's being produced by Nevada's oldest community theater, the 68-year-old Reno Little Theater. As directed by veteran amateur-theater stalwart David Zybert, Rose's play about jury deliberations for a Queens New York Latino accused of knifing his father to death, is too overplayed to be as affecting as it can be. Traumatized performances are Zybert's game plan and it all too soon becomes a just too maddening-for-words plan.

With a cast that includes four female jurors, "Twelve Angry Men" has been transformed into twelve very angry, snarling people. The gender blending doesn't damage Rose's jury-room drama about twelve people liberating their own souls as they thrash about debating guilt or innocence. It's the thrashing about that damages the show.

Well intended amateur actors need a firm directorial hand to save solid drama from becoming awash in the queasiness of unintended melodrama provoking unintended laughs. There are so many performances on the threshold of becoming something really fine that RLT's "Twelve Angry Men," if pared down from its high-decibel table thumping, could modulate into the powerful theater piece Rose came close to crafting. After nearly a half century, the weaknesses and strengths of Rose's characters are still involving, if a bit too contrived all these years later to be totally convincing.

Brian Bass plays the bitter juror who votes to convict because of his own wrenching secret. It's a characterization that could be terrific, if Bass's passion for delivering lines were held in reasonable check. Kenneth T. Ostrom, the thoughtful juror with reasonable doubt, delivers a much more subdued performance, but he, too, is too consistently over the-top. Quiet rage is what "Twelve Angry Men" needs and it's nowhere to be seen.

Trial dramas are often financial bonanzas for community theater box offices. Unfortunately, a play about twelve fairly stationary people creates lists of problems for directors wanting to cash in. The exclusive jury-room aspect of "Twelve Angry Men" is terrifically difficult to stage without making it come off like a silly game of musical chairs. Zybert's direction doesn't solve the problems presented by a play that requires camera closeups, or focused staging on bits and pieces of revealing action, to make its point.

In its favor, "Twelve Angry Men" comes off in a brief 110 minutes including two intermissions. Zybert doesn't waste any time making everyone mad at everyone else. If you like anger, you'll love "Twelve Angry Men."

"Twelve Angry Men" completes its run Friday and Saturday, November 15 and 16, 2002, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, November 17 at 2 p.m. This season's Reno Little Theater productions can be seen at the Hug High School Little Theater, 2880 Sutro Street (at North McCarran Boulevard), Reno, Nevada. For information call 775-329-0661.