Review – 12 Angry Men

The Victorian Supreme Court is not the kind of place you would immediately think of as a theatre venue, but it’s rather fitting that it would be the performance space for Bottled Snail’s production of 12 Angry Men. Still relatively new, the company was founded expressly to provide an artistic outlet for members of Victoria’s legal community – which explains their access to the court, the choice of play, and why the entire cast is made up of practicing lawyers (if not barristers).

As novel as the venue is, it poses a lot of practical problems for a show with twelve actors sharing the crowded stage. The courtroom isn’t that big and the seats don’t really afford a great view of the action to most of the surprisingly-large crowd. Fortunately, Bottled Snail manage to get around this with good quality sound reinforcement and a group of actors with distinct voices.

This production of 12 Angry Men, which was originally broadcast as a television play in 1954, has been updated with the local references and racial tensions in particular receiving a thorough brushing up. Unfortunately, the evidence pieces the plot hinges on don’t fare all that well in the transition, but it’s not enough to derail the show. In fact, the update of the dialogue was particularly well handled, grounding the play in a very Australian dynamic.

Overall, director Max Paterson handled the restrictions imposed by the lack of space and the complexities of such a character-heavy play well, but a little more time invested in developing individual and distinct characterisations, as well as more awareness of audience vision when blocking, would not have gone astray.

Within the cast, the two strongest performances were easily Kylie Weston-Scheuber and Simon Marks as jurors 3 and 8 respectively. The rest of the cast handle the play’s content well, revelling in their parts and bringing that much needed sense of life to an otherwise dour play.

Bottled Snail’s 12 Angry Men is an amateur production, but one full of passionate and dedicated people who have produced an enjoyable night’s theatre, even for people who have already seen or read the play before.