The Whitefire Theatre presents the World Premiere of The Witness Room. Written by Pedro Antonio Garcia. Directed by Bryan Rasmussen.
Four NYPD officers, Eli Torres (Dave Baez), Terrence Sampson (Moe Irvin), TJ Moretti (Louie Liberti), and Kevin Brennan (Mitch Rosander), are accused of fabricating evidence to arrest and convict a Puerto Rican man. Defending the cops is Prosecutor Andrea Volpi (Tricia Small), who is intimately familiar with the four cops and their shady record in the police force.
Playwright Pedro Antonio Garcia offers a glimpse of how the justice system works when police misconduct is involved. The code of silence does not apply to the mafia only, specially if planting evidence is in the mix. The immaculate image of justice in textbooks collides with reality in The Witness Room. The four cops searched for evidence, but what if the evidence is not found? Tampering seems to be the easy way to go. Except if a dedicated and inquisitive defense attorney finds inconsistencies in the cops’ testimonies.
One by one, the cops testify in court. And one by one, they start to break under pressure. This is one of the highlights of Garcia’s writing. He worked as a criminal defense attorney and has plenty of material to work with. His play puts a human face to the usual unbreakable figure of authority that a cop projects in our culture. The four cops and the prosecutor are friends, colleagues, and brothers in arms, but they also have flaws and limitations that can jeopardize the integrity of the American justice system.
The play also shows the complicity of the judges to ignore blatant police misconduct, as if convicting corrupt officers would undermine the trust of the public in the authorities. In this case, the judge is willing to go along with the prosecutor’s strategy to save the cops’ positions, ignoring the defendant’s right to a fair trial.
Even though people know the occasional irregularities of the police actions, few people know the backroom deals happening in the courts in any given day. Whether those deals are a detriment to the justice system or an efficient way to clear the backlog of cases on file, that would be a personal opinion. What The Witness Room does is that it presents technical and little known details while bringing the police officers’ perspective to the regular citizen’s level. Much of what is seen in the play is happening in real life on a daily basis. Profiling, racism, corruption, and even cases of depression among police officers are common instances that may trigger aversion or sympathy, depending on who you ask.
The actors deliver gripping performances that convey the conflicting relationship between good and evil and the urgency to cover the basic necessities of life. Director Bryan Rasmussen creates a dynamic staging to marry action and dialogue, keeping the characters on the verge of total collapse. It’s a riveting production with engaging elements of conflict, emotion, and entertainment. Maybe we will have a different perception when we read the phrase “to protect and to serve”.
The Witness Room
The Whitefire Theatre
13500 Ventura Blvd. Sherman Oaks, California.
8 performances only. The play opens Saturday March 23, 8pm and will continue every Saturday night from March 30 through April 27, 2024, at 8pm.
Tickets: whitefiretheatre.com
Written by Pedro Antonio Garcia. Directed by Bryan Rasmussen. Cast: Tricia Small (Salem) as the Prosecutor and Moe Irvin (Ahsoka: Star Wars), Dave Baez (Greenleaf, Dexter), Louie Liberti (ER) and Mitch Rosander (Two Broke Girls) as officers of the NYPD.
Creative team: Set designer Jeff Rack, lighting designer Derrick McDaniel, sound designer Mitch Rosander, costume designer Laura Tiefer, graphic designer Michele King, fight choreographer Bonzai Vitali and casting director Victoria Hoffman.
