The Exonerated

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen’s play, The Exonerated, was not intended to become a debate wrapped around the electric issue of the death penalty. Over the past several years, more and more light has been shown on those convicted of heinous crimes who are innocent. Blank and Jensen traveled around the country interviewing over 100 people who had been incarcerated for crimes they didn’t commit.

CJ Hosier and Emily Patton Davies in a scene from The Exonerated.

Incorporating the words gleaned from the interviews, they constructed the stories of six exonerated individuals. Set as a staged reading in far too dim lighting designed by Jeremy Boik, the dark stage detracts from the impact rather than add to it as originally intended. Spots encircle the speakers, but the dark stage begs for creative variance hiding in the shadows.

Directed by Steven Tangedal at Theatre On Broadway, The Exonerated wants to shine light on specific individuals who got caught in a judicial system wanting conviction rather than truth.

CJ Hosier brings Gary Gauger to life as best he can in a staged reading. Gauger found his father and mother murdered with their throats slit. He was there. He found them. His presence obvious to the authorities, Gauger was convicted in Illinois in 1993 and released in 1996.

Kerry Max Cook, read by Matt Sheahan, was convicted in 1977 in Texas for stealing a Sheriff’s deputy car, killing a girl. DNA evidence in 1999 proved his innocence.

David Keaton, who will be played by Christopher L. Davenport after May 22, was imprisoned in Florida in 1971, was exonerated in 1973, but not released until 1979. Entangled in the middle of a hold-up.

Vincent C. Robinson’s story cuts through the reading sharply as Delbert Tibbs; He was convicted in Florida in 1974 by an all-white jury for the rape and murder of a white woman he never met. He wasn’t released until 1977.

Emily Patton Davies embraces Sunny Jacobs who was imprisoned in Florida in 1976 and released in 1992. Caught in a strange mixture of circumstances, she and her husband, Jess, were sentenced to death. Davies takes Sunny from the beginning involving her 9-year old son Erik, how she and Erik drove to rescue a stranded Jess, how a man by the name of Rhodes befriended them, shot a woman by the name of Sonja, and testified it was Sonny and Jess. Rhodes having been in prison knew the system and how to work it. After Jess’s execution, Rhodes confessed. Hampered by a script, Davies sheds light on the person of Sonny. Telling her story with a calm, quiet smile on her face, Sonny reveals how she came to terms with her inexplicable circumstance.

Perplexed and obviously shaken over her incarceration, Sonny says, “I’m a hippie, a vegetarian, how could I kill anyone?” Faith wrapped itself around her for her 22-year ordeal. “I wasn’t just a lump of flesh you could put in a cage.” Because of her faith she came out without bitterness, able to go on with her life as a yoga teacher and public speaker.

Asedo A. Wilson reads the words of Robert Earl Hayes, imprisoned in Florida in 1990 and released in 1997.

With the ensemble consisting of Robin Madel, Emily MacIntryre, Todd Black, and Steven Tangedal, they fill in for judges, lawyers. Prison guards, friends.

The reading plays back and forth between the different characters, adding details to their stories.

There is definitely merit to the stories and horror they all lived through and somehow survived, but The Exonerated leaves one wanting more depth: depth of character, depth of insight, depth of information. There is a wanting that this piece could have been acted out rather than read. The impact of the reading left much to be desired wanting to see more, hear more, and feel something. A reading does not allow for that. It would near be criminal to say their stories flirted with boredom, but it comes close because the read printed word plays down honest emotion.

Tibbs begins and ends the reading with the line, “It’s not easy to be a poet and yet I sing … We sing.”

I really wanted to hear them sing. I heard the words, but the music hid behind chairs, scripts and music stands.

Although there were single moments that grabbed my heart, particularly provided by Davies, Hosier, and Robinson, most of the time all I could muster was a sense of passivity. The reading did not contain the energy to turn on my lights.

If this is a new subject for anyone, then by all means The Exonerated should be seen, as an introduction into a world that is far more prevalent than one wants to believe. If this isn’t a new subject, and you want to be moved with depth and insight and knock out emotional appeal, it will provide an outline of intriguing people caught in tragic events, but it will leave you wanting something more.