THEATRE

This American High School theatre company fits the show title like a glove. You witness 12 Jurors; each with extravagant characters, brought together to sentence a man accused of cat-napping 6 cats in an underwhelming display of a dozen teenagers fighting for centre-stage spotlight. It was like watching juvy big-brother where they’d been set a task to put on a play, and you just watch it because it’s on. The level of acting ability widely varied, with alternating cast members, so the glimpses of talent are spread thin; rather like my patience for mediocre performances. This hunger to out-do one another damaged their otherwise co-operative sense of an ensemble.

The show doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is admittedly refreshing at the fringe, but equally it  didn’t take any risks by playing it safe with farcical comedy; which might suffice for an American audience, but the play clearly had scope for delving into sinister ground. For a moment when the taxidermy cat is out of the bag, I thought the show might at least graze a darker humour, but I was disappointed, and the cat really was the funniest aspect of the show.