The Exonerated - Acting Edition

by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen

Paperback, 2004

Status

Available

Genres

Fiction

Publication

Dramatists Play Service, Inc. (2004), Edition: 59686th, 72 pages

Description

What effect does it have on a person--a soul, a life--to have freedom and self-respect stripped away and then, ostensibly, returned years later after decades of incarceration?The Exonerated attempts to answer this question through the words of six innocent men and women who, after years in jail, emerged from death row to try to reclaim what was left of their lives. Among them are Sunny Jacobs, a mother of two whose unwavering belief during sixteen years in jail that she would be released (despite the execution of her husband, who was also innocent, for the same crime) allowed her to dedicate herself to being a "living memorial" when she was freed. There is Kerry Max Cook, a Texan who was convicted of murdering a young woman even though she was found with another man's hair grasped in her fist--a man whom "Texas killed a thousand times, and just keeps ondoing it" in his nightmares. And there is Delbert Tibbs, a black Chicago poet who speaks of his years on death row with anger and bitterness, yet also, as he says, "still sings." All their stories have been compiled and edited by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen intoThe Exonerated, a play that is both a riveting work of theater and an exploration of the dark side of the American criminal justice system.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member riofriotex

I read this play because it was required reading for incoming freshmen at my son’s college. It’s the true story of six exonerated Death Row inmates. The stories are compelling, but even more so when actually performed: I also watched the 90-minute Court TV production on DVD.

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LibraryThing member whitewavedarling

It's hard to sum up this play, but I'm going to try since it's not a read I've seen listed here as of yet. It's a simple play that attempts to document the true stories of men and women who were falsely accused and convicted of crimes that set them on death row until they were eventually, years

later, exonerated and released. I strongly suggest taking the time to read the intro. even if you wouldn't normally, as the authors give you an idea of all the men and women they spoke too, their interviews and hours of research, and how meticulously truthful this full work is.

Charles Isherwood wrote the following in Variety: "An artful and moving evening of documentary theater...The play is on the one hand a devastating memorial to injustice, but it also pays handsome tribute to the resilience of human hearts and minds." I can't say much more than that. This is a one-sitting read that I'm thankful to have read--its' moments of humor and moments of hate (yet, never coming from the exonerated themselves) make you remember for yourself what is important, and why we survive through the worst we face. You find yourself slipping through a few pages easily, and then you realize that someone said these words, that this happened, and you stop. It is an emotional read, worth taking the time for. I also want to add that in a strange way I'm glad to have read this rather than seen it, as I think it sank in more strongly with the pictures I created for myself. Having said that, and recommended its reading, I will also say that I'll hope at some point in the future to see it performed. As a work of documentation and emotion, this work is powerful and worth looking into. I wish in a way it had been longer, but it is perfect for what it is.

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LibraryThing member Chuck37

You kind of have to see this live in order to get the full impact of it, with the on-stage setting exactly as the writers instructed it to be. If it's done that way, then you will get it.

LibraryThing member Devil_llama

It can be difficult to know how to rate a work like this; similar to the vagina monologues in style, with the dialogue taken from interviews done with exonerated former death row inmates. It's difficult to see this as theatrical, though the authors did leave some room for directors to add in a few

little touches, but mostly it's just people talking about things that happened in the past...in short, it breaks all the rules of theatre. That isn't always a bad thing, of course, but you have to be careful when you are writing about a timely topic not to let the message overwhelm the audience. A play with a plot would probably be a lot more effective treatment of the topic in terms of getting people to notice. It has a rather sterile, antiseptic feel to it because you don't see anything that occurred, it is just people sitting and telling the story. Decent material for a book of essays, but questionable handling for a play.

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