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For an actress, playing a defense attorney with a variable jury requires straddling the line between putting on a show for the mass audience and trying to sell a verdict to the smaller body.
“I’ve never had to win over the approval of people – I just portrayed a character,” said stage veteran Jeanne Caldarera, playing Defense Attorney Stevens in Le Petit Theatre de Terrebonne’s “The Night of January 16th.” “This time I have to be very strong and confident, yet likeable, and that’s difficult. … You still have to play to the audience. There’s an audience there that, during a real-life trial, the attorneys could care less what the viewers think. We have to be concerned about our voices projecting and if the audience can see us.”
The courtroom drama “Night of January 16th” was published by philosopher Ayn Rand in 1934 and produced on Broadway one year later. A few years afterward, the debuting group that formed Le Petit performed the script in Terrebonne Parish’s newly built courthouse. Le Petit reprised the play for its 50th season 25 years ago and does so again for a three-day special production this month. Adding to the significance is the setting – the same courtroom that housed the group’s inaugural production.
Prior to each of the three Le Petit shows, attendees are tabbed as jury members, ensuring the verdict they collectively render is unrehearsed. That’s important because Rand gave the jury’s decision weight by writing separate endings for each verdict, simplified to either “guilty” or “not guilty.”
In essence, it seems, the jury is asked to decide whether the high-rolling swindler Bjorn Faulkner killed himself after an investment scam went sour or was murdered by his secretary and mistress Karen Andre (played by Tami RocheLedet).
“It’s a standard procedure where witnesses are called, but … I’m very happy with some of the liberties that the cast has taken to make their characters come alive,” said Karen Schilling, the play’s director.
Adding to the setting’s authenticity are the court reporter (Jeanne Scott) and two bailiffs. Technology’s evolution has helped flat-screen televisions and microphones breach the courtroom, but Schilling said that during the show most gadgets are to be tucked away in order to preserve the 1930s setting.
The play’s name incorporates clichéd, dated courtroom dialect, but its substance is timeless and affecting. Much power is invested in a body of 12 in the U.S. justice system, and because of a jury’s power, everything that is said before it is done so to manipulate its decision. Mining showmanship for facts takes careful attention.
Karen Andre’s life (and Faulkner’s record) hangs in the balance as the last-remaining arbiters of fact attempt to glean truth from the (often) biased witnesses (sometimes) rambling in non-sequiturs.
Opposite Caldarera is District Attorney Flint, played by Steve Crispino. “It’s a healthy competition between the prosecutor and myself,” Caldarera said. District Judge Randy Bethancourt plays the fictional Judge Heath, tasked with keeping the courtroom in order. Various witnesses are played by theater veterans (Pat Crochet, Eddie Olivier, Larry Hyatt and others) and newcomers (Terry Trahan Jr., Mark Detiveaux and more), alike.
“I think my part is going to break the tension because it’s the only comical part of the play,” said Olivier, who is Detective Elmer Sweeney, the first officer on scene and a witness for the prosecution. “I know why they asked me to play this part, because I’m the cut-up. Of all the plays I’ve been in, I’m always the one that instigates the horseplay. … I’m patterning the character after Gomer Pyle.”
“Night of January 16th” is not considered part of the official Le Petit season. Instead, it is a special fundraiser, with the proceeds directed to a fund to renovate the group’s downtown Houma playhouse. Le Petit returns to the stage next month with “Do Not Go Gentle.”
Prior to landing his part, Olivier was unfamiliar with the script. But he sees significance in carrying on a Le Petit tradition.
“It’s exciting, because some of the older people who are coming to see the play were in the play when they were in high school – people in their 80s,” he said. “It was a popular play through the years, and I think it’s important because we’re keeping it alive.”
The play runs from Oct. 4-6 in District Judge Timothy Ellender’s courtroom, Terrebonne Parish Courthouse, downtown Houma. Tickets are $25. For more information, call (985) 876-4278 or visit www.houmalittletheatre.com.
Magda Svenson (Donna Benda) testifies during Le Petit’s rehearsal of “The Night of January 16th” while District Attorney Flint (Steve Crispino) and the bailiff look on. The play opens Oct. 4.
Defense Attorney Stevens (Jeanne Caldarera) presses Detective Elmer Sweeney (Eddie Olivier) for answers. The Le Petit play opens Oct. 4.
