NOW, I’M a cinephile and have been known to hold court over all things movie-related.
But I have to admit I’ve never seen the original 12 Angry Men, starring Henry Fonda as the man trying to convince his fellow jurors of the innocence of a Latino 18-year-old accuse of murdering his abusive father.
Which is a pity as I reckon being able to contrast and compare with the source material would have made this comedy spoof all the more impressive.
There was a legendary, comic-packed performance of the original on the Fringe in 200s and now fittingly here we have the world premiere of the spoof at the same festival.
Incredibly, four of the cast from 23 years ago are back in harness and they are joined by the likes of Fringe stalwarts Andrew Maxwell, Stephen K. Amos, Glenn Wool and – incredibly making his Fringe debut – the one and only Joe Pasquale.
Bit of info for the trivia fans among you, in my previous existence as a journo – apart from various rugby players – Joe is the celeb I interviewed most often and he was always an utter joy, as was the runner-up David Essex.
Now, he’d have been a good addition to the cast…
You all know the format – 12 men locked in a hot New York jury room, though the title gag here is that one of them is of a shorter statue – but there have been a couple of tweaks.
To make the murder less grisly the victim was choked by a rare German sausage (stop tittering at the back madam), and there is a Hitchcockian twist as to the motive of the juror trying to convince his fellow jurors not to send the youth to the electric chair.
Each cast member gets his time in the limelight but for me there were two standouts. Stephen K. Amos gets most of the best lines as the uptight English jury foreman, and Pasquale adds comic brilliance as the voice of doom.
Think Private Frazer from Dad’s Army though I don’t recall John Laurie breaking into a tap routine in between bouts of “We’re doomed, Mainwairing, doomed I tell you.”
The script is clever and tight, though it strays from the core narrative a bit, but I think the playwright Owen O’Neill – also in the cast – might have missed a trick.
The setting is 1958 America and I think more could have been made of the presence of a black man on the jury, as foreman no less, and a cowboy who prefers designing soft furnishings to branding steers.
My only other quibble is that the Pentland Theatre is a marvellous, modern performance space but there seemed to be an issue with the sound.
There was no amplification as far as I could tell and the older couple sat next to me mentioned a couple of times that they couldn’t hear what some of the cast were saying.
In between her explaining the plot to him and unwrapping sweets…
11 ½ Angry Men is on at the Pleasance EICC – Pentland Theatre from August 5-22 (not 9).
