Dead Man Walking Study Guide
Torn between forgiveness and hatred
Dead Man Walking
Based on the book by Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ
Play adapted by Tim Robbins
~~ Study Guide ~~
Compiled by Dramaturge Skyler Vallo
Birmingham-Southern College
_____________________________________________________________
“Dead Man Walking is a meditation on love, criminal violence and capital punishment.
In a larger sense, it is about life and death itself. Are we here to persecute our brothers or bring compassion into a world which is cruel without reason?”
Sister Helen Prejean
Introduction:
In 2002, a new adaptation of Dead Man Walking began to take the college theatre world by storm. The show compelled people to contemplate the death penalty and their ideas and beliefs surrounding the issue. The play project is currently a long-standing effort from writer, director, actor Tim Robbins who adapted the book into both a movie and a play. The play seeks to cultivate responses by engaging people in the exploration of ideas about the justice system, sympathy, forgiveness, and finally, resolution. The play focuses on the relationship between Sister Helen and the convicted death row candidate
Matt Poncelet. The play also follows a number of effected relationships; it follows the victim’s families along with the inmate’s family, the prison warden and detention officers, and it also examines the prison system and the death penalty as a whole.
The play centers on Sister Helen Prejean, a catholic nun, who receives a letter from a death row inmate by the name of Matthew Poncelet. Poncelet was sentenced to
Louisiana’s death row for killing two young teenagers, Hope Percy and Walter Delacroix.
Although Poncelet was sentenced to death, Carl Vitello, his accomplice, was sentenced to a lesser sentence of life without parole. Poncelet, as depicted by the press, is a volatile criminal who often makes references regarding Hitler as a role model. By becoming
Matt’s spiritual advisor, Helen is able to get inside the mind of a
Dead Man Walking
Based on the book by Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ
Play adapted by Tim Robbins
~~ Study Guide ~~
Compiled by Dramaturge Skyler Vallo
Birmingham-Southern College
_____________________________________________________________
“Dead Man Walking is a meditation on love, criminal violence and capital punishment.
In a larger sense, it is about life and death itself. Are we here to persecute our brothers or bring compassion into a world which is cruel without reason?”
Sister Helen Prejean
Introduction:
In 2002, a new adaptation of Dead Man Walking began to take the college theatre world by storm. The show compelled people to contemplate the death penalty and their ideas and beliefs surrounding the issue. The play project is currently a long-standing effort from writer, director, actor Tim Robbins who adapted the book into both a movie and a play. The play seeks to cultivate responses by engaging people in the exploration of ideas about the justice system, sympathy, forgiveness, and finally, resolution. The play focuses on the relationship between Sister Helen and the convicted death row candidate
Matt Poncelet. The play also follows a number of effected relationships; it follows the victim’s families along with the inmate’s family, the prison warden and detention officers, and it also examines the prison system and the death penalty as a whole.
The play centers on Sister Helen Prejean, a catholic nun, who receives a letter from a death row inmate by the name of Matthew Poncelet. Poncelet was sentenced to
Louisiana’s death row for killing two young teenagers, Hope Percy and Walter Delacroix.
Although Poncelet was sentenced to death, Carl Vitello, his accomplice, was sentenced to a lesser sentence of life without parole. Poncelet, as depicted by the press, is a volatile criminal who often makes references regarding Hitler as a role model. By becoming
Matt’s spiritual advisor, Helen is able to get inside the mind of a