The Junior Players production of “12 Angry Jurors” will be Friday and Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. This intriguing 20th century story takes place in New York City within a stifling hot downtown Manhattan court. 12 jurors must determine the fate of a young teenage delinquent who has been accused of murdering his father in their apartment with a switchblade. On the night of this unfortunate event, neighbors heard the father and son fighting prior to the man’s death. At slightly past midnight, an old man living below the apartment heard someone yell, “I’m going to kill you!” and then the sound of a body falling onto the floor. He immediately ran to the stairwell and saw the boy fleeing from the building. A woman living across the street witnessed the stabbing through the windows of a passing elevated train. The son claimed to be at the movies during the time of the killing, but no one saw him at the theater.

With all of the evidence pitted against the juvenile, the verdict is solid and clear. The boy is guilty… except to one juror. Thus, it is this juror’s mission to convince all 11 men that the “facts” are not credible, and “what happened” did not occur.

In an age where alternative facts are prevalent, it becomes appropriate for the Junior Players to put on a production analyzing fact vs. fiction based on faulty evidence. The main takeaway message from this piece, an original stand-out teleplay in 1954 and a Hollywood movie in 1947, deals with how innate prejudices and biased views of the world obscures the factual truth. Ultimately, the audience is urged to decide – Guilty or Not Guilty?

Show times are Nov. 2-4 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 at the door.

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