Act 1

Question 1

Annie:

All I’ve done all day is perspire.

Answer 1

I bet you aren’t perspiring like that boy who was tried.

Question 2

Guard:

Just knock.

(Door is locked)

Answer 2

Did she lock that door?

Question 3

Jemi:

Yes, she did.

Answer 3

What do they think we are, crooks?

Question 4

Maya:

They lock us up for a little while…

Answer 4

And then they lock that boy up forever, and that’s alright with me.

Question 5

Emma:

It’s been a pretty hard week.

Answer 5

I feel just fine, so long as I’ve got my crocheting.

Question 6

Annie:

I just mentioned that I might not have a job by the time I get back.

Answer 6

Ask her to help you. She’s rich. I bet her husband could give you a wonderful job. Look at that outfit!

[motioning to Jemi]

Question 7

Alesya:

How horrible.

Answer 7

Did they get him?

Question 8

Jemi:

They couldn’t.

Answer 8

Why not?

Question 9

Alesya:

That isn’t going to happen here.

Answer 9

Six days. They should have finished it in two. Talk! Talk! Talk! Did you ever hear so much talk about nothing?

Question 10

Bibi:

Well- I guess- they’re entitled…

Answer 10

Everybody gets a fair trial… That’s the system. Well, I suppose you can’t say anything against it.

[throw paper cup at floor]

Question 11

Nine:

And that our tempers will get short.

Answer 11

That’s if we disagree - but this is open and shut. Let’s get it done.

Question 12

Ros:

Yeah. Let’s see who’s where.

Answer 12

Right. Let’s vote now.

Question 13

Maya:

Okay. Not guilty?

[Emma raises her hand]

Answer 13

Say, what’s the matter with you?

Question 14

Maya:

Now we know where we stand.

Answer 14

Do you really believe he’s not guilty?

(to Emma)

Question 15

Emma:

I don’t believe it’s as simple as A, B, C.

Answer 15

I never saw a guiltier man in my life.

Question 16

Emma:

Are we to vote on his face?

Answer 16

You sat right in court and heard the same things as I did. The boy’s a dangerous killer. You could see it.

Question 17

Emma:

Where do you look, to see if someone is a killer?

Answer 17

Oh, well!

Question 18

Emma:

He’s nineteen years old.

Answer 18

That’s old enough. He knifed his own father. Four inches into the chest. An innocent little nineteen-year-old-murderer!

Question 19

Jemi:

I think we should try to avoid emotionally colored arguments.

Answer 19

All right. They proved it a dozen different ways. Do you want me to list them?

Question 20

Emma:

I don’t want to change your mind.

Answer 20

All right. What do you want?

Question 21

Jemi:

But neither of us have ever killed.

Answer 21

I know what hard luck’s like, but I never killed no-body either.

Question 22

Nine:

You don’t have a monopoly on the truth!

Answer 22

All right. Save it for Sunday! We don’t need a sermon.

Question 23

Maya:

Shall we get back to the case?

Answer 23

Yeah, let’s.

Question 24

Emma:

There is a life at stake here.

Answer 24

Okay, let’s get to the facts. Number one, let’s take that old man who lives on the floor right underneath the room where the murder took place. At ten minutes after twelve on the night of the killing he heard loud noises in the upstairs apartment. He said it sounded like a fight. Then he heard the boy say to his father, “I’m gonna kill you.” A second later he heard a body falling, and he ran to the door of his apartment, looked out, and saw the kid running downstairs and out of the house. Then he called the police. They found the father with a knife in his chest.

Question 25

Maya:

And the coroner fixed the time of death at around midnight.

Answer 25

Right. Now, what else do you want?

Question 26

Jemi:

The boy’s whole story is flimsy. He claimed he was at the movies. That’s a little ridiculous, isn’t it? He couldn’t even remember what picture he saw.

Answer 26

That’s right. Did you hear that? You’re absoultely right.

[to Emma][to Jemi]

Question 27

Bibi:

But the cashier didn’t remember him.

Answer 27

And the ticket taker didn’t either.

Question 28

Maya:

Now, take it easy.

Answer 28

Come on. Sit down. What’re you letting her get you all upset for? Relax.

Question 29

Alesya:

He was picked up for knife fighting. At fifteen he was in a reform school.

Answer 29

And they sent him to reform school for stabbing someone.

Question 30

Alesya:

So would I - on a boy like that! Or if I couldn’t - I’d see that his father did!

Answer 30

You’re right. It’s the kids nowadays. The way they are - you know? They don’t listen. I’ve got a boy. When he was eight years old I caught him with some of the neighbourhood gang - fighting - and out on the street! After all I’d said about staying away from those toughs - he goes and joins them! I gave him a whipping he wouldn’t forget! And you know what? When he was fifteen, he hit me - a woman - his own mother - in the face! He’s big, you know. I haven’t seen him in three years. Maybe I’m better off. A rotten kid! I hate tough kids! You work you heart out… All right. Let’s get on with it…

[slams down crocheting][bitterly][pauses][very embarassed]

Question 31

Bibi:

There is something personal!

Answer 31

Come on, now. She didn’t mean you. Let’s not be so sensitive.

Question 32

Jemi:

While it doesn’t change my opinion about the guilt of the boy, still, I agree with you that the defense counsel was bad.

Answer 32

So-o-o-o?

Question 33

Emma:

This is a point.

Answer 33

What about facts?

Question 34

Emma:

So many questions were never answered.

Answer 34

What about the questions that were answered? For instance, let’s talk about that cute little switch knife. You know, the one that fine, upright boy admitted to buying.

Question 35

Emma:

All right, Let’s talk about it. Let’s get it in here and look at it. I’d like to see it again, Madam Foreman.

Answer 35

We saw the thing once. I don’t see why we have to look at it again. What do you think?

[to Emma][to Jemi]

Question 36

Jemi:

The lady has a right to see exhibits in evidence.

Answer 36

Okay with me.

[shrugging]

Question 37

Jemi:

The storekeeper was arrested the following day when he admitted selling it to the boy.

Answer 37

I think everyone agrees that it’s an unusual knife. Pretty hard to forget something like that.

Question 38

Emma:

Right.

Answer 38

You bet she’s right. Now, listen to this lady. She knows what she’s talking about.

[to Emma][to all]

Question 39

Emma:

I’m not trying to make anyone accept it. I’m just saying it’s possible.

Answer 39

And I’m saying it’s not possible. What are you trying to do?

[rising, shouting][switch knife in table][slowly, amazed]

Question 40

Emma:

I got it in a little junk shop around the corner from the boy’s house. It cost two dollars.

Answer 40

Now, listen to me!

Question 41

Emma:

I’m listening.

Answer 41

You pulled a real smart trick here, but you proved absolutely zero. Maybe there are ten knives like that. So what?

Question 42

Emma:

Maybe there are.

Answer 42

The boy lied and you know it.

Question 43

Maya:

I think we ought to get on with it now.

Answer 43

Right. Let’s get going here.

Question 44

Ros:

How do you like this woman?

Answer 44

Well, what do you say? You’re the one holding up the show.

[shrugs and turns to Emma]

Question 45

Jemi:

There’s the old man downstairs. He heard it. He heard the boy shriek out…

Answer 45

The woman across the el tracks, she saw it!

Question 46

Maya:

Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.

Answer 46

That’s six.