Zava Productions’ Hide and Seek takes a have a look at homophobic violence in small-town Italy on the VAULT Festival
“Why did you run away?”
A play can’t select the viewers it will get however there’s one thing deeply depressingly about folks laughing out loud at two males kissing in a drama about homophobic violence. Hell is different (straight) folks…proper? Which finally is kinda the purpose of Tobia Rossi’s Hide and Seek. High-schooler and TikTokker Gio (Issam Al Ghussain) has run away from his residence in a small conservative Italian city and has holed up within the cave within the woods. Schoolmate Mirko (Nico Cetrulo) tracks him down although and sequestered from the world (and its sniggering viewers), a putative relationship blossoms.
But life exterior the cave goes on noisily and as Mirko comes and goes, he brings with him information of that exterior world and we see how this relationship is twisted from the beginning. Gio relishes the drama his disappearance has created, craving experiences of the hitcounts on his movies, and Mirko clocks that he has discovered the perfect car to work by way of his insecurities. Thus there’s a thought of have a look at among the elements shaping younger masculinity, the corrosive impact of social media dependancy, the concern of bucking societal expectation. It ought to work, however one thing on this manufacturing feels off.
Whereas some allowance must be made for a present with such a brief run, dropping into an unfamiliar venue, a few of Carlotta Brentan’s directorial decisions nonetheless want work. Unnecessarily prolonged scene adjustments are coated with swirlingly cinematic however considerably meaningless music from Simon Manfredini – for a play so up-to-the-minute with TikTook, it’s a surprisingly dated transfer. And far an excessive amount of of the motion occurs on the ground, screwing up sightlines for a lot an excessive amount of of the viewers (and never simply the sock fetishists), robbing us of alternatives for emotional engagement.
The ending additionally feels fudged. [Mild spoiler alert] The ethics of including to that too-high pile of comparable tales apart, the prolonged brutality of the ultimate scene is solely not wanted, exploiting queer trauma in an unsightly method. And while there’s an try to name again with a brighter coda, once more it’s extending far past necessity, sapping the efficacy of its intent. I don’t imply to say that we must always solely be platforming Pollyanna-ish chirpy LGBTQ+ performs, by no means, however that there’s a deeper duty there to interrogate your decisions. As it’s and regardless of dedicated performances from each its actors, Hide and Seek wants work.