I didn't see everything by off-the-beaten track Queen City Off-Broadway in its freshman season last year, but everything I saw made me want to see more.

        Queen City resumes with a very short run of 12 Angry Men at Plush, the cabaret space upstairs at Carol's on Main. Sure enough, it's worth your time.

        Men is a classic from the live TV days of almost half-a-century ago, but in the hands of Queen City's savvy producing director Lyle Benjamin, it's a long way from a moldy oldie.

        The 12 of the title are a jury, and in an era that is consumed with police procedural entertainment from Law & Order to CSI, it's fun to go to the one place TV doesn't take its audiences — the jury room.

        Mr. Benjamin has neatly updated the script and made clever casting choices that is a reflection of today. The jury, for example, includes men and women, blacks and whites. The drama's moral dilemmas are particularly timely in Cincinnati, and the mystery that the jury has to unravel still works.

        On a hot summer day, a jury gathers to weigh in on “guilty” or “not guilty” against a young man, presumably African-American, accused of killing his abusive father.

        Of course when the first count is taken it's 11-1 in favor of a “guilty” verdict and the sole hold-out is an African-American man (Curtis Drake Shepard).

        A jury room is one of those places where you can bring together characters who would never meet much less interact otherwise — an architect, a house painter, a broker, a phone sex operator, a racist.

        More credit goes to Mr. Benjamin for rounding up a solid company, many of them community theater veterans, including Eric Day, Tara Guilfoil, Bill Keeton, Lynn Meredith and Ric Young, who all fill showy roles. Along with his other duties, Mr. Benjamin does a game job of playing the jury foreman.

        Throughout, Mr. Benjamin pokes at racial prejudices by purposefully matching women and African-American men to roles so audiences will be hit where they live.

        The production is low-rent, but Mr. Benjamin gets a lot from a little.

        The tight playing space is used to very good effect, especially when the cast rises to the occasion for several heated confrontations. The claustrophobic atmosphere works in the play's favor, putting the audience on top of the action.

        12 Angry Men, 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Plush (825 Main St., upstairs), 681-2043.

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