12 Angry Jurors

April 24, 2026, 7:30 PM
April 25, 2026, 3:30 PM
Performing Arts Center
Brewster, MA

Elements Theatre Company presents a classic American Courthouse Drama. As part of this year’s America 250 programming, Elements chose this play to highlight the United States legal system—the right to a fair trial, due process, and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Enter the jury room on a very hot summer day as twelve jurors are charged with the heavy responsibility to deliberate the fate of a 19-year-old boy accused of stabbing his father to death…

Tickets:
$35 General; $30 Seniors; Free for Students & Youth
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From the Company

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing Declaration of Independence, Elements Theater Company has chosen to perform 12 Angry Jurors by Reginald Rose – a play that takes place entirely in one jury room where twelve jurors are tasked with the weighty responsibility of determining whether or not a young man is guilty of murdering his father, and is therefore deserving of the death penalty.

Many Americans can recite the first phrase of the Declaration of Independence – We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness –  but when the stakes of conviction in a criminal case would deprive an individual of liberty by imprisonment, and in this case of life itself by the death penalty, the process of reaching a unanimous verdict is fraught with difficult debate. 

Fault lines begin to appear among the jurors by age, race, education, values, temperament, and socioeconomic background, as the American justice system both pressures them—and is tested by them—to determine how justice can be sought and found.

As the jurors struggle toward a decision, the audience is invited to wrestle with its own assumptions and biases that may shape perceptions of truth. How do we arrive at the truth? What is truth? What were the Founding Fathers fighting for when they risked their lives to defy monarchy in pursuit of a better future—one in which citizens could debate justice freely, without tyranny? Is it better to let a guilty person walk free than to deprive an innocent one of their unalienable rights?

Working on this production, we have engaged in our own (at times heated) debates which ultimately leave us grateful for the framework this country was founded upon, and eager to share this production with you in honor of our 250th year of Independence. Without debate, without the freedom to debate, justice dies in darkness.