What I liked
Well-rehearsed and meaningfully written, B-SIDE: LIMBO is an homage to something that is so beautifully empty to so many of us who have experienced a glance into “what could have been” but are unceremoniously stuck in “here we are.” Truly, this is a poetic take on the derealization of the protagonist’s (and perhaps, our own) existence.
A modernly demented take on both Peter Pan and Alice Through the Looking Glass, B-SIDE: LIMBO effortlessly plays with the audience’s emotions as they witness the boy who never grew up—whether out of his own volition or simply because fate simply decided to be unkind to him—as he gets a little too familiar with the smoking caterpillar and much worse: those lost boys in his life who continue to project their own Neverland onto his reality and have broken the clocktower’s hands, perpetuating this unprepossessing limbo that is too many of our family’s living rooms with that one couch that has seen far too many things and has been through far too much.
The intimate setting was perfect for the audience to closely relate to the performers—the one hour showcase of talent uncomfortably and unnervingly compelled the audience to become part of the protagonist’s world as he continued to spiral further down the rabbit hole—a frustratingly realistic depiction of far too many moments in far too many of our own lives. This allowed for the audience to recognize that the boy who never grew up should have been in search of the Blue Fairy instead of continuing to follow the white rabbit.
I congratulate the cast and crew. B-SIDE: LIMBO was an experience I will never forget; it was filled with raw performances, natural talent, and the nostalgic tunes of Mario Kart…what more could someone ask for?
What I didn't like
While the intimate setting was meaningful crafted to ensure that the audience felt as if they were in the tv screen the characters so often were looking into, the spacing of seating (as well as height between the three rows of chairs) could have been more defined so that every audience member had a vantage point from every angle.
My overall impression
B-SIDE: LIMBO—a compelling narrative that is all too familiar for so many of us that intentionally yet effortlessly evokes, provokes, and chokes the audience’s own erratic emotions, recollection of the past, and reclamation of the self.
