Twelve Angry Men tours to Theatre Royal Bath

Reginald Rose’s gripping courtroom thriller Twelve Angry Men visits the Theatre Royal Bath from Monday 27 November to Saturday 2 December with a stellar cast featuring Patrick Duffy (Dallas, Man from Atlantis), Tristan Gemmill (Coronation Street, Casualty), Gray O’Brien (Coronation Street, Peak Practice), Michael Greco (EastEnders), Ben Nealon (Soldier Soldier) and Gary Webster (Minder, Family Affairs).

A life in the balance, twelve men, one verdict. A jury has murder on their minds and a life in their hands as they decide the fate of a young delinquent accused of killing his father. But what appears to be an open and shut case soon becomes a huge dilemma, as prejudices and preconceived ideas about the accused, the trial and each other, turn the tables every which way, until the nail-biting climax.

Back in session and touring nationwide with a new cast for 2023 and 2024, the theatre production has previously completed two West End seasons at London’s Garrick Theatre and two national tours. Reginald Rose’s Twelve Angry Men originated as a television play before being successfully adapted for film, radio and stage. Hailed as "the classiest, most intelligent drama playing on the West End”, this production brings to the stage the taut brilliance of Sidney Lumet’s 1957, three-time Academy Award nominated film. Starring Henry Fonda as the juror who fights for justice, 12 Angry Men is considered to be one of the great ‘must-see’ movies of all-time.

Patrick Duffy, who stars as Juror number 8, is known to audiences worldwide for his twelve-year role as Bobby Ewing in the CBS primetime drama Dallas. For more than forty years, Patrick has appeared in some of television’s most beloved series. An original cast member in Dallas, he starred in more than 300 episodes across all fourteen seasons between 1978 and 1991. He also played Mark Harris in NBC’s sci-fi adventure series Man from Atlantis, Stephen Logan in CBS’s The Bold and The Beautiful and Frank Lambert in the ABC sitcom Step by Step. His stage roles include starring as Serge in the award-winning West End production of Art. Patrick makes a welcome return to Bath’s Theatre Royal following his debut visit in Catch Me If You Can in 2022.

Tristan Gemmill stars as Juror number 3. Best known for his long-running roles as Robert Preston in ITV’s Coronation Street, and Emergency Consultant Dr Adam Trueman in BBC1’s Casualty, Tristan’s many screen credits also include London’s Burning, The Bill, Poirot, Strictly Confidential, Cape Wrath, Where the Heart Is, Death in Paradise and Call the Midwife. His West End credits include playing the title role in The Bodyguard opposite Beverly Knight and Alexandra Burke, as well as Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell, Rope and Dangerous Corner, which visited Bath in 1993, 1994 and 1995 respectively. His film credits include The Jacket with Keira Knightley and Adrian Brody and Flying Blind opposite Helen McCrory. He last played Bath in Henry V in 1997.

Juror number 10 is played by Gray O’Brien. Well known on television for his award-winning portrayal of the villainous Tony Gordon in 285 episodes of Coronation Street, he also starred as Dr Tom Deneley in Peak Practice, played Dr Richard McCaig in Casualty and appeared as Alan. 

Redford in The Loch. His screen credits also include Taggart, the Doctor Who 2007 Christmas Special, Titanic: Blood and Steel and the film The Queen. Gray’s stage work includes Sleuth in the West End and The Sound of Music on UK tour, in which he played Captain Von Trapp. Previously at Bath’s Theatre Royal, he has starred in The Perfect Murder in 2014, Dead Simple in 2015, The Case of the Frightened Lady in 2018 and Catch Me If You Can in 2022.

Michael Greco returns to the stage as Juror number 7. Best known for his role as Beppe Di Marco in more than 400 episodes of EastEnders, Michael television credits also include Doctors, Golden Hour and The Dumping Ground for BBC, African Queens for Netflix, Chasing Shadows for ITV and Revenge for ABC TV. His stage work includes starring as Billy Flynn in Chicago and Abanazar in Aladdin at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre. His film credits include this year’s release of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

Ben Nealon has toured to the Theatre Royal in eleven thrillers previously. A stalwart of The Classic Thriller Company and The Agatha Christie Theatre Company, Ben’s many visits to Bath have included Spider’s Web in 2009, Murder on the Nile in 2012, Black Coffee in 2014, The Lady Vanishes in 2019, The Cat and the Canary in 2020 and Catch Me If You Can in 2022. Best known on television as Second Lt/Captain Jeremy Forsythe in ITV’s series Soldier Soldier and D.I. Baxter in Doctors, Ben returns to the Theatre Royal to play the role of Juror number 12.

Gary Webster, who plays Juror number 6, is well known for his roles as Ray Daley opposite George Cole in ITV’s Minder for four years and as Gary Costello in the Channel 5 soap Family Affairs, for which he won a prestigious British Soap Award for ‘Best Storyline’. His screen credits also include EastEnders, Real Women, Hollyoaks and The Bill. Gary’s stage credits include Kay Mellor’s A Passionate Woman in the West End, Dial M for Murder and Pygmalion at Theatre Royal Windsor, and The Cat and The Canary on UK tour, including Bath’s Theatre Royal in 2020.

Completing the cast for the 2023 UK tour are Paul Beech, Samarge Hamilton, Jeffrey Harmer, Mark Heenehan, Kenneth Jay, Paul Lavers and Owen Oldroyd.  

Reginald Rose won three Emmys in his lifetime and was nominated for a total of six. Best known for writing plays for television, notably for CBS's Studio One, he also found success writing for the stage, as well as for regular television programming. Rose was known for confronting social problems and the political arena. His plays include The Bus to Nowhere, 12:32 a.m., An Almanac of Liberty, Crime in the Streets and Twelve Angry Men, which started life as a television play, before becoming a landmark film, which influenced the future of American cinematography, and a successful stage play.