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Twelve Angry Men, Théâtre National de Nice

Writer's picture: Nathalie Audin Nathalie Audin

Friday 4 October 2024

Published on Resonances Lyriques Org

©Photolot

‘Not guilty!’ How they are whispered, the last words of the last man to agree to think, before darkness falls on the stage of the Théâtre National de Nice, to the rapturous applause of a packed house. Two barely audible words, grave, dark... from the depths of a being, but two words that were certainly spoken. The fruit of a dense and intense camera session, of an almost unconscious introspection in spite of oneself, of an obligation to reflect imposed on a jury of twelve men faced with the life of a sixteen year old accused of stabbing his father, but two words distinctly spoken to the audience.


In a dynamic production by Charles Tordjman, twelve men stand up and sit down, express themselves and ruminate, clash and confront each other, and above all learn to listen to each other so that they can finally agree on a human value: intelligence, questioning, abandoning the ego. Each voice is a click ‘on’ or ‘off’ on the switch of the American electric chair. The author, Réginald Rose, was writing with full knowledge of the facts in 1955, having served as a juror in a very grim case! An unleashing of feelings, exposing human behaviour in the face of a difficult truth. How do you approach an objective reality with subjective eyes? That's the question!


Egocentrism in the confusion of some with their own history; egoism in the impatience of others who prefer to avoid the slightest contact with themselves so as not to risk any suffering whatsoever, and cling to their immediate futile pleasures (going home to watch the football match); emotional traumas sometimes at the root of this cowardice; vile interests of those used to turning any situation to their advantage (exchanging business cards! ); an intellectual inability to integrate new data into a thought-provoking jigsaw puzzle, resulting in the same arguments being trotted out over and over again without being able to take account of their proven invalidity...

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Alfred de Musset was well aware of this when he wrote, in On ne badine pas avec l'amour: ‘the world is but a bottomless sewer where the shapelessest seals crawl and writhe on mountains of mire’. The list of sordid reactions is long in this human complexity, which is nevertheless in search of well-being, but without knowing how to achieve it...


And then, sometimes an angel sits on a bench. Here, it takes the form of an architect who, in his own right, prompts everyone to reflect. His strength: doubt, rather than conviction: ‘I have the certainty of my doubt’ proclaims the juror who prevents us from going round in circles. His strengths: intuition, open-mindedness, the neutrality that enables emotionless communication, the absence of judgement, the finesse of an intelligent heart, the courage to stand up to a majority steeped in certainty...


A play fashioned from human clay, where the beautiful wins out over the vile. A text that you can carry with you for a long time and take far with you, thanks to twelve exceptional actors on a mission to convey the path of intelligence through doubt. Twelve trained listeners to guide us on our way, right from the end of the show.


Nathalie AUDIN

04 October 2024


Author : Reginald Rose

Adaptation : Francis Lombrail

Stage direction : Charles Tordjman


Distribution : 

Jurors :

Antoine Courtray

Philippe Crubézy

Adel DjemaiChristian

DrillaudXavier de Guillebon

Geoffroy Guerrier

Yves Lambrecht

Roch Leibovici

Francis Lombrail

Charlie Nelson

François Raüch de Roberty

Alain Rimoux


Nice Côte d'Azur National Dramatic Centre

Director :  Muriel Mayette‑Holtz



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