Touching on issues like identity, peer pressure, friendship and the negative impact social media culture is having on young people, Hide and Seek doesn’t feel like entirely untrodden territory. Written by Italian playwright Tobia Rossi and translated and directed here by Carlotta Brentan, Hide and Seek charts the course of an unlikely friendship formed by two boys, Gio (Louis Scarpa) and Mirko (Nico Cetrulo) under quite bizarre circumstances.
Bullied and belittled by his classmates, Gio retreats to a cave to escape after leaving a final mark on social media. Mirko finds him, and the two bond over their shared role in sensationalising Gio’s disappearance to feed the ensuing media circus, resorting to some fairly drastic measures to twist the story and stay relevant. As their friendship blossoms with potential, will Gio finally have the courage to return to the world that he has fled…?
If this all sounds a bit trite and predictable, then honestly it sort of is – although not entirely so, and there are enough strange little details here to make this an enjoyable hour-and-a-bit’s worth of play. Constance Comparot’s rustic yet gritty set design works perfectly with Alex Forey’s – understandably – minimal lighting to summon up the illusion of the action taking place in a dark, dirty cave, and Simone Manfredini’s musical input is sparse but well done.
The acting is a tad on the clunky side, but so indeed is some of the writing – and come to that many teenage boys – so it’s largely forgivable. I did struggle with the plausibility of what was being presented, and questioned if the original work either needed another half an hour to build a better base for what unfolds, or 20 minutes fewer to tighten the characters and the narrative. Overall the play didn’t knock my socks off but there was enough emotional interest and loving production there to warrant a watch.
Playing until 30th March, https://parktheatre.co.uk/whats-on/hide-and-seek
Reviewer: Zoё Meeres
Reviewed: 14th March 2024
North West End UK Rating: