12 Angry Men - Review

Richmond Theatre, Richmond

****

Written by Reginald Rose

Directed by Christopher Haydon

The cast of 12 Angry Men

Catching up with the Bill Kenwright company’s touring production of 12 Angry Men proved an absolute delight. Reginald Rose’s classic yarn set in the jury room of a murder trial where with the death penalty awaiting a guilty verdict the life of the accused rests in the jurors’ hands, is done to perfection by an outstanding cast.

Jason Merrells takes up the role of Juror 8 - famously played by Henry Fonda in Sidney Lumet’s 1957 movie - kicking off proceedings as the sole Not Guilty voter amongst the 12. For those not familiar with the story, this review won’t spoil the outcome, suffice to say it’s a charming pot-boiler of a yarn that picks apart the trial’s evidence, drawing its dramatic strength through exposing the attitudes and prejudices of the titular dozen along the way.

Merrells is great but he’s well matched by Tristan Gemmill’s Juror 3, the play’s protagonist who is the most convinced that the accused should face the electric chair. There is brilliant supporting work too, notably from Michael Greco and Gary Webster, but it should be said that the entire cast, comprising a fair chunk of the cream of Britain’s acting talent pull off a terrific ensemble performance. Richmond Theatre was deservedly packed on the night of this review. Christopher Haydon has directed a brilliant evening’s entertainment which seen on the road, at regional theatre ticket prices, is brilliantly affordable too.

My verdict: Electrifying! Catch it if you can.

Runs until 10th February then continues on tour

Photo credit: Jack Merriman

The Secondary Victim - Review

Park Theatre, London


**


Written by Matthew Campling
Directed by Matthew Gould

Susannah Doyle and Gary Webster

Matthew Campling who’s written The Secondary Victim has been a practising psychotherapist for twenty years and there is clearly a volume of professional experience that underscores his play. Sadly however, in its premiere at the Park Theatre we find that his work, while brilliantly performed, comprises a script that’s possibly more dysfunctional than many of the clients Campling may have counselled over the decades.

The titular secondary victim here (with the play’s title being almost a spoiler in itself) is Ali, a middle-aged psychotherapist who finds herself the subject of a complaint alleging sexual misconduct. Susannah Doyle puts in a fine shift as Ali, struggling with her own personal emotional challenges. An equally strong performance comes from Michael Hanratty as the complainant Hugo. We learn that he is Ali’s former client and, by many years, her junior.

In what seems a lengthy two and a half hours, Campling takes us through not only Ali’s own marital strains with husband Victor (Gary Webster), but also her counselling of another client who’s a paedophile, along with glimpses into the professional relationship she maintains with her supervisor Marilyn. Not only that, we also meet Jonny, Hugo’s subsequent therapist, who in an implausible coincidence strikes up an affair with Marilyn whilst the pair are away at a psychotherapy conference.

The human condition is complex and Campling might, in a more carefully crafted work, have been correct to reference so many of society’s challenges in his text. Unfortunately, the sum total of his writing amounts to an unconvincing sequence of events that appear to have been clumsily thrown together solely to advance his dramatic narrative and which place Ali in a perfect storm of domestic and professional catastrophe that defies credibility.

Not only does Campling’s writing lack subtlety he does his profession a grave disservice with the ethical standards of his psychotherapists seeming too often to be lacking. Professional boundaries are continually blurred, with all three therapists showing scant regard for client confidentiality.

There is a lot more dramaturgy that's needed here. As it stands, if Ali is the secondary victim then the audience, quite possibly, is the third.

Runs until 9th December