Twelve Angry Men (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Rose, Reginald

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143104403 ISBN 13: 9780143104407

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2006

Synopsis

A landmark American drama that inspired a classic film and a Broadway revival—featuring an introduction by David Mamet

A 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. legal system. The play centers on Juror Eight, who is at first the sole holdout in an 11-1 guilty vote. 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. 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.
 
After 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. More recently, Twelve Angry Men had a successful, and award-winning, run on Broadway.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Over the course of a steamy and tense afternoon, twelve jurors deliberate the fate of a 19 year-old boy alleged to have murdered his own father. A seemingly open and shut case turns complicated, igniting passions and hidden prejudices.

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring:

Dan Castellaneta as Juror #5

Jeffrey Donovan as Juror #8

Hector Elizondo as Juror #10

Robert Foxworth as Juror #3

James Gleason as Juror #2

Kevin Kilner as Juror #6

Richard Kind as Juror #7

Alan Mandell as Juror #9

Rob Nagle as Juror #12

Armin Shimerman as Juror #4

Joe Spano as Juror #11

Steve Vinovich as Foreman/Juror #1

Directed by John de Lancie. Recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

About the Author

Reginald Rose (1920–2002) won three Emmy awards for television writing as well as an Oscar for the movie adaptation of Twelve Angry Men.

David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1984. Mamet is also the author of Writing in Restaurants and On Directing Film, both available from Penguin.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0143104403
• ISBN 13: 9780143104407
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 73