By Kerri VanderHoff
WKTV Contributor

Six random strangers are stuck in a room until they figure out how to come to a consensus. In today’s polarized world, one wonders how that is even possible. Yet, if a system based on law is to function properly, then much depends upon agreeing to follow it. And democracy – where all citizens are considered equal under the law – needs a system based on law to exist. But when it comes right down to it – the system and the law – well, those are two distinct things to consider.

This is the dilemma that Petty Crimes, written by local playwright Kristin Andrea Hanratty, explores in its 90-minute world premiere production this week at Actors’ Theatre.

The crime itself is minor, a simple misdemeanor requiring only six jurists; it should be a quick deliberation and then everyone gets back to their own lives. But the characters and the context complicate things.

The play takes place in one setting, a cramped room that serves as an alternate deliberation space due to a much bigger trial happening at the same time. The other trial has overtaken the regular facilities as well as the public imagination, and with it a disruptive media frenzy. This displacement reveals but one layer of context that counteracts the idea of equal justice. The jurors are uncomfortably (even if for some, just physically) aware of what garners attention in society, and what is overlooked, as their deliberations proceed.

While instructed to dutifully fulfill their part of the legal process and follow the narrow parameters of the law, real life and lived experiences creep in through the cracks of their contained environment (as do the flies). Much like the mismatched chairs in the room that each negotiate for their own, perspectives and privilege sorts itself out.

The cast nimbly understands the broader representation each role brings to the table, including veteran actor Greg Rogers as Clayton, the older white male stepping sincerely and assumingly into the role of jury foreman; Bryanna Lee as Becca, the enthusiastic young legal student fascinated and distracted by the process; and Ruth Ann Molenaar as Eileen, a mature Black woman whose agency resides in keenly knowing how to read a room filled with all the others.

Interesting how a single, comfortable new office chair can say so much about dominant ideology, its hegemonic gestures of equality, and its actual heir apparent in this system we uphold, for better or worse.

This production is a respectable debut of an original work, and it is a play that deserves to live on in future interpretations by theatres across the country. Kudos to Actors’ Theatre in Grand Rapids for recognizing this and initiating the launch.

For more information about the play or for tickets, visit actorstheatregrandrapids.org