Martin Shaw is to return to his home city to play the lead role in a new version of Reginald Rose’s Twelve Angry Men at Birmingham REP.
Shaw, whose West End appearances include Frank Elgin in Clifford Odets’s The Country Girl at the Apollo Theatre in 2010 and Sir Thomas More in Robert Bolt’s A Man For All Seasons at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in 2006, will play Juror number eight, the role made famous by Henry Fonda in the Academy Award-nominated 1957 film.
The cast also comprises Robert Vaughn, Jeff Fahey, Nick Moran, Paul Antony-Barber, Robert Blythe, David Calvitto, Edward Franklin, Owen O’Neill, Jason Riddington, Luke Shaw, Martin Turner and Miles Richardson.
Twelve Angry Men is directed by Christopher Haydon with design by Michael Pavelka.
The story involves a young delinquent’s life hanging in the balance as he is accused of murder. Twelve men convene in a claustrophobic room to decide.
They have almost reached a unanimous verdict of guilty but a single dissenting voice instigates an insightful, emotionally charged examination of the facts.
Is there enough reasonable doubt to acquit? And can he persuade his eleven fellow jurors to spare the life of the accused?
Twelve Angry Men runs at Birmingham REP from Friday (4 October) until Saturday 19 October. Press night is Tuesday 8 October.
The production then goes on tour before transferring to London’s Garrick Theatre from 7 November until 1 March.