Hide And Seek
Park Theatre • 12 Mar - 30 Mar
A mysterious missing adolescent, a town in turmoil, past secrets revealed and a tragic romance in the making. This is the heady mix of ingredients that make up Tobia Rossi’s play Hide And Seek, currently playing at the Park Theatre. Originally written in Italian, the play won the 2019 Mario Fratti Award at the In Scene! Italian Theatre Festival in New York. Now adapted into English by director Carlotta Brentan, this new production, first performed for a British audience at the VAULT Festival in 2023, still leans heavily into it’s Italian roots, but not at the expense of it reflecting on some more universal themes of our times.
In a dark cave, deep in the woods, Mirko (Nico Cetrulo) stumbles across Gio, (Louis Scarpa), a missing adolescent from the same rural Italian town, who has run away from home having been made to feel like an outsider for most of his life by his parents, his teachers and most recently his homophobic peers. Whether Mirko was actually looking for Gio, or just happened to stumble across his hiding place whilst taking photographs in the woods is unclear but, as the two talk, it soon becomes apparent that they had, in fact, both attended the same school. Mirko has an eerily forensic memory of all their past interactions, but despite many of these having been engineered by Gio in order to place himself in Mirko’s orbit, it would seem Mirko had hitherto been completely oblivious to Gio’s existence… or had he?
It’s an unsettling liaison that comes with a strong sense of foreboding from the start. Mirko is not only persuaded to keep the discovery of Gio’s hiding place a secret, but is also on a promise to return to the cave and bring with him some much needed supplies. This he does, and along with the provisions come details of the chaos Gio has left behind in the town he has left, the rumours and unsubstantiated theories that surround his disappearance having now reached fever pitch. The unforeseen knock on effect of this is an explosion of interest in Gio’s social media account, it being a damning inditement of the times that we live in that, despite the extremely unconventional circumstances, popularity on social media still matters, and when the ‘likes’ start declining a plan is hatched to keep the interest in his disappearance going.
Upon Mirko’s numerous return visits an uneasy friendship grows, and their conversations get more intimate, but a stolen kiss from Gio leaves Mirko having to face his own uncomfortable questions about his confused sexuality, it soon becoming another secret he is determined to keep hidden in the confines of the cave given that, back home, he not only witnessed the homophobic bullying Gio had been subjected to but, it transpires, had also played an active part in it.
Hide And Seek is at times as tender as it is disturbing, and even on occasion deeply shocking. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard such a widespread gasp from a theatre audience, but it makes perfect sense given both Scarpa and Cetrulo performances are both instantly engaging and wonderfully nuanced throughout this two-hander as they navigate a relationship that seems almost destined to fail from the start, given the strength Gio is able to take from his increasing closeness with Mirko only causes Mirko to feel a weakness that he ultimately can’t accept in himself.
Whilst Constance Comparot’s set design is fairly minimal, and the action occasionally gets oddly trapped at the back of the stage, Alex Forey’s lighting design works wonders in maintaining the claustrophobic atmosphere of the makeshift subterranean dwelling in which both actors deliver pitch perfect performances. With some occasionally well placed and darkly comic relief throughout, Hide And Seek takes it’s audience on a complex emotional journey that is unlikely to be forgotten until some time after leaving the theatre.
★★★★
review: Simon J. Webb
photographs: Mariano Gobbi