With ’12 Angry Men,’ The Suffolk gives drama a trial run

For its first live theatrical production, The Suffolk reached a verdict quickly in the matter of what to perform on the former Riverhead cinema’s petite stage: the courtroom drama “12 Angry Men.”

The 20-by-30-footlights can accommodate the play’s one set, a 1950s Manhattan jury room, and have enough room for blocking its 13 cast members, who portray the dozen jury members and a court officer, around a rowboat-sized table.

But with the play’s focus on justice for a defendant who is never seen but referred to as being one of “those people,” the choice to bring the Reginald Rose work to The Suffolk for the venue’s entry into Long Island’s live theater scene was more than just a space consideration. “I thought this was needed,” says Gary Hygom, executive director, of selecting “12 Angry Men.” “I hope there’s a day when stories like this are not needed, but I think it shines a light on the bigotry which still exists, certainly in our legal system.”

The drama, which runs from March 28 to 30, was written first as a teleplay and later adapted for the 1957 Sidney Lumet Oscar-nominated film starring Henry Fonda. It centers on deliberations in a homicide trial in which a teenager is accused of stabbing his father to death. The young man faces the death penalty, which was legal in New York State until 1963. One panelist, known as Juror 8, raises serious questions over evidence, hoping to change his fellow jurors hearts and minds. Each performance will be followed by a question-and-answer session with local judges and lawyers. The same talkbacks will be presented to the 1,400 students expected for morning performances in the run-up to the opening, Hygom says.

THE SPACE IS RIGHT

The Suffolk is known primarily for its nostalgic 1960s, ’70s and ’80s live music, with an upcoming lineup of performances that includes Herman’s Hermits Starring Peter Noone and a robust roster of gigs paying tribute to Paul McCartney, Earth Wind and Fire and Bon Jovi. The restored Art Deco-era theater also occasionally shows classic and contemporary movies.

But successful one-night runs of an outside production of “A Bronx Tale: The One Man Show Starring Chazz Palminteri” in 2024 and a reading by Mercedes Ruehl and Harris Yulin of the play “Love Letters” in 2022 showed Hygom “there was a hunger for really great theater,” he says.

Plans are underway to deepen the theater’s apron with a portion of a $2 million state Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant The Suffolk has received, he says. This will allow the theater to stage larger, higher-tech productions, he says.

Right now, “12 Angry Men” is probably the only play you could do in the space, says director Joe Minutillo. “There’s only one entrance on stage, because the other side is just packed with equipment and there’s no way of getting in and out,” he says. Cast members will hide in a corner instead of exiting for scripted bathroom breaks, he says. Scenes that are written to take place in the restroom will be brought out on stage, he says.

In another departure, Minutillo has cast a Black actor as jury foreman. “It’s important to sort of see how they all respond to him,” he says. “The rest of everybody else is white. That doesn’t change the story … There were Black people who were on juries in New York. And remember, this takes place in New York. I don’t think that would have happened in Alabama.”

STRIVING FOR AUTHENTICITY

Ensemble members will be wardrobed in vintage suits and hats, Hygom says. The gray fabrics and materials will be set against walls painted in a vintage-inspired green, says Hygom. The Midcentury Modern 16-foot table was rescued from a Long Island office building’s warehouse and had been used in a conference room, Hygom says.

Other props will be contemporary, some of which Hygom says he is modifying to look more authentic to the period.

Actor Matt Conlon says he’s thrilled to be Juror 8, saying that he is not afraid to be “the guy that stands up and says, You know, that’s not right.”

Conlon’s chemistry with other castmates is “intense,” Minutillo says: “I think everybody’s going to be walking out of the theater talking.”