Conviction

The drama explores the effects on family, friendships and sense of self after the young actress playing Juliet in a high school performance of Romeo and Juliet accuses her teacher Tom of what the newspaper calls “an inappropriate sexual relationship with an underage female student.” The play focuses on the four adults and on Nicholas, the teenage son of Tom and his wife Leigh, as they cope with accusation and trust. The show asks an avalanche of questions from the obvious “did he or didn’t he?” characters also discuss what “underage” means, since different states have different definitions, and what should be considered inappropriate behavior for a teacher and student. There is further consideration of how much drug use a parent should tolerate in a teenager, what friendship is about, how far spousal allegiance should go and how much doubt an outsider to the family should express.