by Guest Reviewer T.E. Klunzinger
Just as “Something’s Afoot” spoofs the Agatha Christie genre, so too does this script by Ian McWethy spoof the iconic court drama “12 Angry Men,” but without any music or fancy trappings.
As presented by Generations Community Theater in the basement of Sycamore Creek Church, you very much get the feeling you’re in a cramped jury room, starting with the chillier-than-usual temperature – it’s not the venue; it’s in the script.
And then you meet the jury, most of whom would not survive the voir dire process in the real world. While Steve Lee does yeoman work as the moderator trying to bring order out of the collective mental chaos, my personal favorite was Cade Venzke as the really creepy guy who likes his French fries too much.
The antagonist, as it were, is an unusually-clean-cut Quinn Kelly as a wannabe-lawyer who argues against all logic that the accused might in fact be Not Guilty: a confessed stealer of cats (cat burglar? catnapper?) who has been videotaped doing the dirty deed. Or has he?
By the end of the deliberations, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, you’ve become quite familiar with the jurors and their quirks: Denise Baum, working on her improv; Sommer Bouknight, with significant anxiety issues; Kriss Martinez-Easley as a goth phone drone; Alex Larner and Gail Dean as the Mafia-flavored Bickersons; Alyssa Mikolanz as a ditzy gamer; Erika Wulfekuhler, all simmering violence; Diane Kennedy as a celeb wannabe; and Amelie Lepley as the East European out of her element.
This all apparently takes place in or near a major city, as the variety of accents – Russian, Cockney, Italian – would be otherwise inexplicable in a smaller place. But maybe we’re not supposed to think about that. Or about the fact that with everyone seated around a real table, with the audience on three sides, blocking and sightlines are occasionally problematic. But director Ted Wulfekuhler generally keeps the characters and opposing viewpoints colliding with each other on a lively basis.
There are moments (but only moments) of high drama, a dinosaur video and… well, best you discover the rest for yourself. The show is not particularly long, which is just as well considering the rampant amount of flawed reasoning on display. But it’s a great amount of fun.
“12 Incompetent Jurors” plays at 7:00 pm tonight (Saturday) and next Friday and Saturday, with Sunday matinees at 2 pm, at Sycamore Creek Church on South Pennsylvania. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Wildside Animal Rehabilitation and Education Center to help fund their Eagle Habitat.
http://generationstheater.com