REVIEW: 12 Angry Men

It is said that when one door closes, another one opens. Ten-year-old Spotlight Theatre Company, best known for its door-slamming farces at West Colfax E-vent Center in Lakewood, has closed that door, and opened a new one at the John Hand Theater in the Lowry development. And what a bold, brave, new beginning Spotlight has chosen, with its production of the riveting jury-room drama 12 Angry Men, playing through September 27.

Executive producer Pat Payne has assembled a dream team of artistic talent, including director Linda N. Suttle and 13 of the most gifted local actors anyone has assembled in one place in recent memory.

Depictions of legal proceedings are inherently dramatic. The stakes are high, the climate is adversarial, truth is not easily discerned but terribly important, and the audience's interest is motivated by a desire to see justice done. Add to it the invitation to become a voyeur into the secret deliberations of a sequestered jury room, and the appeal is irresistible.

Twelve men who would rather be almost anywhere other than a stifling inner-city jury room are bound by a sense of civic duty and a locked, guarded door, compelled to determine the fate of a 19-year-old accused of stabbing his father to death.

In a truly remarkable and brilliantly acted ensemble production, the twelve jurors sift the evidence and work the system, determining whether or not unanimity is possible, whether or not there is reasonable doubt, and whether or not any of them will emerge unscathed. Justice costs, and often the innocent pay the price, except that when all is said and done, we are all wounded victims and guilty sinners. How can the morally fallible set aside their own prejudices long enough to make a life or death decision? They feel the burden of being asked to play God, and so does the audience.

This production is so good, so carefully directed and beautifully performed, I wanted to shout and laugh and clap my hands, but that would have been completely inappropriate in such a serious, "big social issue" drama. One side of my brain wanted to celebrate Spotlight's outstanding achievement, and the other was fully engaged in the play's worthy and relevant moral debate.

Spotlight Theatre Company’s production of 12 Angry Men plays through September 27 at the John Hand Theater. Call 720-880-8727 or visit www.thisisspotlight.org.