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Execution of Justice THIS WEEKEND at Roosevelt University’s O’Malley Theatre
The 1978 murders
of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone
and Supervisor Harvey Milk,
the first openly gay elected official in America, shocked the nation—and the subsequent trial of the accused killer, fellow Supervisor Dan White, exposed a community in the throes of divisive conflict. In Execution of Justice, playwright Emily Mann reinvestigates the trial and its explosive outcome, bringing to dramatic life the questions of class, morality, and social acceptance which lay at the heart of one of the century’s most notorious crimes.
In the play the trial itself is on trial in the court of theater and is found guilty of a miscarriage of justice parallelling the actual case which resulted in White being convicted of a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter, rather than two counts of first-degree murder, and sentenced to less than eight years. The play references the urban legend that White’s defense strategy was primarily the so-called “Twinkie defense” — painting his junk food consumption as a significant or even in some versions the sole cause of his actions.
The highly emotional play combines live stage action, videos, taped voices and music including a video camera on stage projecting its image onto large screens throughout the performance which uses the drag nun Sister Boom Boom, an AIDS activist, as a voice of consciousness representing human rights for all marginalized groups, not just gays.
Directed by Goodman Theatre Associate Producer Steve Scott, Execution of Justice will play at Roosevelt University’s O’Malley Theatre (430 S. Michigan Avenue) on Friday, October 29 and Saturday, October 30 at 7:30 PM, and Sunday, October 31 at 2:00 PM.
For tickets, call the Roosevelt Theatre box office at (312) 341-3831.
