Life > November 8, 2007

By Julia Demaio | Staff writer

What happens when you put 12 angry people in a room for hours on end?

What about 12 angry New Yorkers?

Tempers rage, words sting and switchblades fly in Reginald Rose’s Twelve Angry Men, currently being performed on the MainStage by the university theatre department.

This moving play will have audience members itching to stand up and shout alongside the actors.

The entire feud takes place inside of a jury room in the middle of New York City in the late ‘50s.

Although the original cast actually consisted of 12 men, university director John Friedenberg decided that women would make a fine addition to the play. How right he was.

Sophomore Jenny Malarkey shines as the sole voice of reason at the start of the jury’s deliberation.

The other 11 members of the jury are ready to send a 16-year-old boy to the electric chair for the alleged murder of his father without a word of discussion or debate.

However, Juror No.8, played by Malarkey, refuses to give in so easily because she has, as the judge says, “reasonable doubt” as to the boy’s guilt.

Through patience and cool reasoning, Malarkey slowly convinces other members of the jury, and audience alike, that there is in fact a “shadow of a doubt” as to whether the boy on trial is a murderer.

The first person to change her vote as a result of Malarkey’s insistence is Juror No.9, an older woman played by sophomore Allie Gervasio.

Gervasio’s character is the sympathetic, proper, hat-wearing type of woman who clashes fabulously with the brash, biting and boorish personality of Juror No.3 played by sophomore Drew Haverly.

The entire cast is extremely entertaining from sophomore Chris D’Auria’s Yankee-loving mafia man to junior Dan Applegate’s overzealous salesman to sophomore Brittni Shambaugh’s bubbly ditz.

Characters like Shambaugh’s and Applegate’s provide the much needed humor to this otherwise serious play.

Freshman Lizzy Thomas nearly steals the show in her university theatre debut as the crude, outspoken, lower-middle class woman that has a criticism for everyone she meets.

Thomas’ rant about how blacks are “gonna breed us out of existence” is only intensified by the presence of sophomore AeJay Mitchell’s cool, collected, well-put together black business man who grew up in the slums.

During this rant, there was visible uncomfortableness seen in the audience, which is only an indication of the high quality of acting by this rather young cast.

This drama is not only for the serious theatre-going type but should really be seen by everyone who calls themselves an American.

Junior Mike Discepolo plays a convincing European who moved to America to start a new life.

Discepolo’s character has a great many things to say about the way American government should work.

His idealized views of the American system stimulates thought and debate from both the cast and audience as to what is fair and right.

This University Theatre production is filled with so many fantastic actors and elicits so many fervent emotions that it almost feels interactive. The title of the play is no lie.

It will make audiences angry enough to want to stand up and yell.

If you are ready to embrace that anger, to accuse and be impressed by young actors, then Twelve Angry Men is not to be missed.

The show opened Nov. 2 and continues this week with shows at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 8, Nov. 9 and Nov. 10 and at 2 p.m. Nov. 11.

Tickets are $5 for students and $12 for the general public.