Limbo: The Twelve – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose

Limbo: The Twelve at Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose – Other Yin, Edinburgh.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

This is the second piece this year commissioned by Northwestern University American Music Theatre Project and the Royal Conservatoire, bringing back together the USA writing team Casey Kendall and Jonathan Bauerfeld with director Tisch School alum Ryan Cunningham. Again no programme so I cannot celebrate any of the performers or others involved in the creative process.

Here we have a new creation in the format of Twelve Angry Men, but in this case 12 people drawn together to explore the fate of Tess, a young girl who has died of a heroin overdose. We have the chance to hear from her family, friends, lovers, teachers, and others who have been touched by her life.

After a beautiful multi harmony choral opening, I felt a little overwhelmed by the amount of unsung exposition which introduced us to all the plot characters, but I shouldn’t have worried – in time we were treated to some great numbers which resonated with the heritage of the giants of Broadway musicals Kander and Ebb, and Stephen Sondheim.  As with a work like Company or Chorus Line, there is no hiding for any of the performers because they all get their story to tell – and this can be a challenge for a student company gathered for a festival, but each rose to the challenge.

The crafting of the plot gave me some fun dramatic surprises, and the staging flowed seamlessly – thank goodness for bentwood chairs. I felt I too knew Tess by the end and would have been able to consider her life in all its messy glory.  Thank you to both institutions for giving writers the chance to create new work in this way, and I hope that the writers will continue to develop this from into an oft-produced professional and community show.

Chris Grady