Reginald Rose's Twelve Angry Men: A Play in Three Acts

by Sherman L. Sergel, Reginald Rose

Courtroom drama revolving around the trial of a boy accused of killing his father, where one man stands between him and capital punishment.

Genres: Plays, Classics, School, Drama, Theatre, Fiction, Read For School

63 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1955

Reviews

[Elijah Blough · Rating 2 out of 5]

They ruined the ending! This is one of the true great American stories, and they ruined it! Henry Fonda would be so sad!

[London · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for my language arts class and it was surprisingly good. I wasn’t expecting it to interesting especially cause it’s a play script.

[Callie Mikesell (callie_reads_books) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phenomenal piece. Even my sweet, stupid little sophomores loved it.

[Megan Kosakowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick read! Loved it! Movie time…

[julianna ➹ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was surprisingly.. good. I actually enjoyed the story, the characters, and their development as Juror Eight influenced them.

[Marina Wall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely not my favorite book I’ve read for school but far from the worst.

[Erika · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this fully through probably 40 times plus individual passages a ton more as I memorized my lines for Juror #3 so my cast mates and I could act out the play in our local theater. Each time we ran through it, and I saw how my fellow actors chose to play their unnamed characters, I feel like I understood one more nugget of what makes them who they are to vote the way they do.

As for my character, I chose to play her as a mother with an estranged adult son who is married to an emotionally-unavailable man who works too much. She’s a middle management customer service representative who deals with unhappy clients all day and is relieved that she can use jury duty as an outlet to let out all those feelings. She holds out until the bitter end - literally the last words of the play - and caves not because of what the others say, necessarily, but because she realizes she can’t bully others into agreeing with her and her emotions bubble up and she has to admit to herself and the group that she was wrong, which is very hard for her.

This would have been very hard to just read and not see on the stage.

[Bettejane Rolli · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this play in the late 1960s, in my teens; I’ve enjoyed the 1957 movie production a couple of times in my life. Prior to the 2024 Presidential election, the clip from that movie wherein Juror 10 goes on a rant about “these people” was promoted as a suggestion of comparison to one of the candidates in November 2024. (It is, in my opinion, a fair comparison to the person who won that election.) 12 Angry Men is one of those books/novels/stage-plays that everyone should read and absorb at least once in their lives.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have reread the script seven times now and I will read it again. I am directing this show in the fall 2026. The more I read it, the more I understand its brilliance. I have made major discoveries about each character. Yes, their racial prejudges come to play also their own selfish motives, but the final hold out wants to push the kid because he can’t punish his own son. Deep. After reading it is a must to see on stage.

[Britta Wheeler · Rating 3 out of 5]

For such a short play, there is a great deal to unpack here. Lots of interesting characterization throughout and great exploration of rhetorical strategies to explore. Could be really interesting to use to teach rhetorical strategy and then stage a classroom trial based on the evidence presented.
Very interesting and quick read.

[Claudia Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have seen the film, but it was a million years ago. This is the stage play. The community theatre is putting it on locally and I'm helping locate and procure props. I very much enjoyed the dialogue, which very much comes off as "of that era".
It's set in the jurors' deliberation room. That fact very much increases the tension onstage. It's a great piece of writing.

[Victoria Korey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve assigned 5 different classes to read this play over the last 5 years. Every single class enjoys it, and is hungry to learn more about our judicial system, the 1950’s, and playwriting in general. This is truly a timeless piece of literature!!! It is amazing how relevant it still is today!

[Beki Mc. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just like the movie if the movie was a neat little free library find!

[allison :) · Rating 3 out of 5]

would i have read this if i was not in it ? 100% no. will it be counting towards my yearly reading goal ? 100% yes.

[Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this classic.

[Jayla💐🌊💓📖 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring

[Kendall M · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was umm wow

[hayden · Rating 4 out of 5]

read for my high school play!!!

[Elizabeth Hernando · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read with the love of my life and I was fond of his accent of Juror #11

[Sarah Irwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall loved it! However, I felt the ending was rushed and I didn’t like the intimidation element towards the end.

[Josephine Mattia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The play in book adaptation was incredible from beginning to end.

[Deepto Chakraborty · Rating 5 out of 5]

A landmark in American play!

[Jennifer Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The power of a jury of your peers!!! 61 short pages but what a roller coaster. This was great.

[Conrad Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

There were only really 2 angry men at any given time...

[Matthew B · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

The movie completely cleared this out of the water, I’ve now realized I’m not a fan of reading plays

[Makenna Weeks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love reading plays. Everything that needs to be told to the audience is through dialogue and here, although blatant in its message, never fails to test the audiences’ own prejudices.

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reginald Rose's Twelve Angry Men leaves you with a sharp realization: Sherman L. Sergel knows that individual freedom is never given away all at once, but chipped away piece by piece.

[Christie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read. Interesting to read all their opinions.

[Lauren M · Rating 5 out of 5]

I decide to read Twelve Angry Men because my school had performed the play a few years ago. My teacher had it in her library so I thought I’d give it a try. I really like plays, so I thought it would be really interesting to read it as a book.

Twelve Angry Men is a three-act play about a jury who must determine if a man is guilty of murdering his father. The jury begins as 11-1 and only one man thinks he is not guilty, so they must discuss. He convinces the jury and people slowly start to turn to his side, and after lots of fighting it eventually becomes 6-6. The foreman decides that they should take a vote to decide if they are a hung jury or not, and it is also a 6-6 vote. One man decides to change his vote and they continue their discussion. Some characters are much timider and rarely engage in the conversation, while jurors three and eight are the most talkative and have been arguing throughout the duration of the play. By the end, it is 11-1 and juror three is the only one left. Everyone has made their case as to why the man is not guilty but three won’t go over until everyone is on the opposite side of the room from him and yells the facts at him until he finally cracks and walks to the other side of the room, admitting that there is reasonable doubt of the man's guilt.

I really enjoyed this story. It was interesting to see how my opinion changed with the jurors. I originally thought it was clear the man was guilty, but as juror eight continued to explain the reasons for the man’s innocence, my opinions began to change. I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that I read this as a play because I got to imagine it in my mind, but there was less left up to my imagination as there were cues for the actors and detailed descriptions of the scene throughout the book. One other thing I really enjoyed was how there is a description of each character at the beginning of the book, so I felt familiar with the characters when I began to read. Overall, this has been one of my favorite books that I’ve read lately.

One thing I didn’t like about this book is that the characters don’t have names. I think it can get confusing as they are only called their numbers (1-12) except for juror one who is called the foreman. I really liked this book and was hooked the whole time, but there were times when I was confused as to who was who. That was really my only critique of this book. It was usually very clear as to who the more major characters were and what their thoughts were, but when the smaller characters interjected sometimes I couldn’t really remember who it was. I think that this would not be an issue on the stage as you can associate each number with a physical person in front of you.

[Isaiah MorVvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

this story is a master class in dialogue and subtle charactor writing.

the vast majority of the characters are very well developed, and each have distinct personalities. I have not seen the play, or the movie though, so this is my only view point of this particular story, which may be why I rated it so high, as I've glanced over other reviews that claim it to be worse than the original.

I wasn't quite expecting it to be as much of a play as it was, so if you don't want to read a play, then DO NOT GET THIS BOOK. I still enjoyed it though, even if I was surprised by this. it's much more of a play than most plays, if that makes sense. for example, when I'm reading Shakespeare, it seems as if it could somewhat be seen as a regular book, but 12 angry men is definitely a play.

semi-spoiler: I think the biggest thing I didn't like from it was that the woman in the el train didn't necessarily get foreshadowed as to what accessories she wore. (if you know, you know) and I think the book should have told us about that sooner, instead of randomly bringing it up. but I enjoy that the entire book acts as if we've already seen what happened previously. for example, it shows what the jurors are like, rather then telling us early on. we need to learn who they are.