With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. More recently, Twelve Angry Men had a successful, and award-winning, run on Broadway.įor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. Reginald Rose deliberately and carefully peels away the layers of artifice from the men and allows a fuller picture to form of them-and of America, at its best and worst.Īfter the critically acclaimed teleplay aired in 1954, this landmark American drama went on to become a cinematic masterpiece in 1957 starring Henry Fonda, for which Rose wrote the adaptation. Eight sets his sights not on proving the other jurors wrong but rather on getting them to look at the situation in a clear-eyed way not affected by their personal prejudices or biases. The play centers on Juror Eight, who is at first the sole holdout in an 11-1 guilty vote. The result is a taut, engrossing drama in which eleven jurors believe the defendant in a capital murder trial is guilty, while one juror stands up courageously for what he believes is justice and tries to persuade the others to his way of thinking.A landmark American drama that inspired a classic film and a Broadway revival-featuring an introduction by David MametĪ blistering character study and an examination of the American melting pot and the judicial system that keeps it in check, Twelve Angry Men holds at its core a deeply patriotic faith in the U.S.

He also thought that since no one other than the jurors had any idea of what went on in a jury room, a play taking place entirely within a jury room might be an exciting and possibly moving experience for an audience (∺uthor's Commentary on Twelve Angry Men in Six Television Plays).

and found myself facing a strange man whose fate was suddenly more or less in my hands, my entire attitude changed. Rose was greatly impressed by the gravity of the situation, the somber activity of the court, and the absolute finality of the decision that he and his fellow jurors would have to make. At first, he had been reluctant to serve on a jury, but, he wrote, the moment I walked into the courtroom. The play was inspired by Rose's own experience of jury duty on a manslaughter case in New York City.

Author of twelve angry men