Mar 7th-9th, 2013, Frist Film/Performance Theater: The play is adapted from the famous film 12 Angry Men (1957), and is performed in Chinese. This Spring play is directed by Chengming Zhu ‘13, and performed by both Princeton undergraduate and graduate students in the Frist Film/Performance Theater.
The drama depicts a 12-man jury’s deliberation of a homicide trial and it raises significant issues concerning the judicial system, social justice, prejudice, doubt, minority concerns, etc. A 12-man jury is sent to begin deliberations in the first-degree murder trial of an 18-year-old Latino accused in the stabbing death of his father, where a guilty verdict means an automatic death sentence.
The case appears to be open-and-shut. Eleven of the jurors immediately vote guilty; only Juror No. 8 casts a not guilty vote. At first Mr. Davis' bases his vote more so for the sake of discussion after all, the jurors must believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty. As the deliberations unfold, the story quickly becomes a study of the jurors' complex personalities (which range from wise, bright and empathetic to arrogant, prejudiced and merciless), preconceptions, backgrounds and interactions…
