Chandigarh, 19 July, 2015 : Talented young artists from various walks of life in the age group of 17-27 came together at St Kabir’s Auditorium to present 12 Angry Jurors, a play written originally by Reginald Rose and adapted by the young theatre director Zubin Mehta of St Kabir Wings Theatre Academy.
The play depicts a story of 12 jurors who are forced to consider the trial of a 19 year boy charged of murdering his own father ,who will be sent to the electric chair with the unanimous decision of the jury. The play witnesses a series of disagreements , arguments and outbursts when 1 out of 12 jurors , also the protagonist of the play, aptly played by Manhar Kumar , is not convinced with the facts linking the defendant to the crime.
The play progresses in the most surprising way, where gradually all the jurors are convinced that there is reasonable doubt, and that the defendant may not be guilty of the crime. The antagonist of the play, Juror number 3, played by Ranbeer Sidhu showed plethora of emotions on stage and was a treat to watch for any theatre enthusiast. The volatile, aggressive and stereotypical Juror no 10 is played by Andrea Mary Gosain.
The aggression , classism , and the outbursts showed by all 12 characters
Kavya Atray Rabiya Batth, Yatharth Gandhi, Devyani Mehra, Siddhant Arora, Aditya Khemka, Surya Mittal, I
nderveer Singh, Aman Jagdev, Neha Khanna was staged to near perfection
The light, background music, costumes all added to the play being scintillating. The properties of the play was dexterously designed and managed by the dynamic Sophia Chhabra , of O.P. Jindal college , Sonepat.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Gurpreet Bakshi, Administrator, St. Kabir School stated,“After giving a number of successful plays which are diverse in theme, treatment and style, we have been able inculcate in the tricity students and young amateur artists the liking for theatre which in itself is an achievement”. When Wings Theatre Academy and St Kabir school collaborated four years back to bring theatre in education, it was a new concept for the city, but over a period of time Zubin made us believe that it has a lot of scope and personally help the students gain confidence, overcome their anxiety and make them sensitive towards life, shared Mr Bakshi
‘12 Angry Jurors’ was a challenge for us as we adapted the play with 4 women which originally is not. It was also difficult to show the aggression as the whole play is enacted on the single set “ , stated a satisfied Zubin.