The Exonerated

[I posted this (or something similar to it) yesterday, but then Blogger ate it. It totally disappeared!]

Some of you lawyer-types may already know about The Exonerated, but Michael and I saw it on Thursday, and while it's not exactly going out on a limb to assume that the audience was very liberal and already very anti-capital punishment, I think the play was still a powerful and necessary re-affirmation of that stance. While I've never really wavered in my views on this topic, sometimes our beliefs can be even further solidified through anecdotal evidence -- there's something about live actors on stage embodying six real people's stories that elicits a visceral response, and perhaps that allows for a deeper level of re-understanding our beliefs. [Note to self: see plays more often.]

Michael and I both cried during the play (if you don't, something's very wrong), but at different moments, which is sort of interesting, and I'm sure I could psychoanalyze that for days. For me, it was when Sunny -- the one female character of the six characters whose stories were beautifully interwoven -- in a sort of direct address to the audience, asked us to consider what it would be like to have 1976-1992 removed from our lives...just wiped away. She could've said: "I was on Death Row for seventeen years," but something about the dates, for me, immediately got me thinking about removing that part of my life -- from age four (yes, I'm that old) to age twenty -- and images from all those years flashed in my head, and I imagined them getting wiped out. That knocked me out. I just can't fathom seventeen years on Death Row. And she was exonerated about 2 1/2 years after her common law husband, Jessie (also wrongfully accused of the same crime), was put to death in one of the most gruesome electrocutions ever -- the equipment malfunctioned repeatedly and flames literally came out of his head, and smoke out of his ears. [sigh]

And what kills me is that after having seventeen years stolen from her, the state having executed her innocent husband, and having missed seeing her children grow up, Sunny now goes around telling people her story, seemingly without bitterness.

So go see it if you get a chance. One caveat, though: I found some of the prescriptive rhetoric a bit annoying. Meaning, the play could've been a little more subtle at times. I think the six stories spoke for themselves, and it seemed a bit excessive to make sure the audience knew the "take-away." However, obviously it is a political play, and part of its purpose is to affect change, so in that sense, I guess I can understand why the writers and director would choose to play up the "here's the message, now go take action" aspect of the play.