It’s refreshing to see a much-visited subject of bullying and homophobia in a world dominated by social media, given a fresh treatment that is both innovative and extraordinary, but that is what Italian writer Tobia Rossi has done in Hide and Seek, translated and directed by Carlotta Brentan at the Park Theatre.
Made intriguing by two endearing actors who capture the passion, naïveté, enterprise and imagination of youth
Gio (Loris Scarpa), has been an outsider all his life, believing that he not accepted by anyone around him, be they his parent, teachers or classmates. He endures the claustrophobia of small-town Italy and the entrenched prejudice towards anyone who seems different, especially if that is being gay. Unable to endure further he retreats to hiding in cave. He takes some minimal supplies, blankets and ominous pillows. Despite the depth of the cave and its isolated location, his popular classmate Mirko (Nico Cetrulo) discovers him.
The question now is, “What to do?” Mirko is a sympathetic listener. Gio is determined not to have his location revealed, despite being informed of his mother’s anguish and the media frenzy surrounding his disappearance. Should Mirko betray him or support him? Even without an initial clear intention, he becomes embroiled in Gio’s scheme; at first just going along with it and then becoming proactive in sustaining his detachment from the world. Underlying the development in that plot is Gio's obvious infatuation with Mirko and the initial tentative reaction from Mirko that increasingly reveals his own homosexual curiosity, that develops into an unnerving desire for control and domination.
The cave is suggestively captured by Constance Comparot in a minimalist set whose eeriness is enhanced by Simone Manfredini’s soundscape and the dim, shadowy lighting of Alex Forey, brightened only by the string of battery-powered Christmas-style lights that Mirko brings along.
Scarpa and and Cetrulo are well matched. Scarpa is confident about what Gio has done and pleads his cause with conviction while sustaining an air of vulnerability. Cetrulo takes Mirko on a journey from the incredulous, mainting that Gio cannot go on like this, to the supportive and the to becoming absorbed in the event and unwilling to see Gio give up his position as a recluse. The reversal of positions comes as no surprise, from Gio being committed to remaining in the cave, and Mirko wanting him to leave because he clearly cannot spend the rest of his life there; to Gio deciding he wants to re-enter the world and Mirko making the argument for staying. From that point on the ending becomes predictable.
The story is rather drawn-out but it's made intriguing by two endearing actors who capture the passion, naïveté, enterprise and imagination of youth.
