Following its successful run at Vault Festival, Hide and Seek will be making its Off-West End premiere at Park Theatre this March. Written by Tobia Rossi, translated and directed by Carlotta Brentan, and starring Loris Scarpa as Gio and Nico Cetrulo as Mirko, Hide and Seek explores bullying, homophobia, and the power of connection. Facing discrimination, Gio runs away from his town, isolating himself in a cave. When fellow-teenager Mirko discovers him there, he becomes Gio’s connection to the world beyond the cave. In this interview, Loris Scarpa and Nico Cetrulo speak about their experience working on this play and the importance of the piece’s message.
What is important to both of you about telling this story at this moment in time?
Loris Scarpa: There are so many things that make this story important, and I mean, for me, the way that social media is such a huge part of everyone’s lives, for better or for worse, and sort of the dependence that we have on that, teenagers especially. When you’re a teenager, you put so much value on certain things, like high school politics, classroom politics, and how that feeds into social media and how toxic it all is. I think personally, it took me a long time to like, develop a healthy relationship with the way that I view social media and the way that people view me through it. Just talking about those things, I think, is important, and the effects it has on people.
Nico Cetrulo: Social media can change your perspective and your view on things. It can guide you in a certain way that if you don’t truly understand yourself and your morals and your views, you can get misguided in a lot of forms. And the beautiful thing about this play is there is that influence, and you hear, and you see, and you feel it throughout the play. But when two people connect without social media being present, you really hear the truth and the authenticity of that person. It’s a bit like having slides in front of you. Once you remove them, you see this beautiful thing that you didn’t even know was possible or available to you as a person.
Loris: Yeah, that’s such a good point. And the whole thing of the, like real life consequences of things that happen as opposed to the way that we view social media and how you think consequences don’t really exist in social media, but then you’re actually doing things that have real life effects, for better or for worse. It’s a tool that really connects people as well. Like, I won’t say too much about what happens in the play, but there are moments in which you see like, wow, [social media] is connecting all these people and in a really real way. And then, at the same time, it really separates them. I mean, there are so many other really important things about this play, and that was that’s just one of them.
Nico: Yeah, that’s true. Homophobia is a huge topic in the play. It’s, there’s just so many important reasons why people need to come to a play like this.
Sort of keeping on this social media train of thought, social media seems to spiral further and further out of control as time goes on. Do you think that how social media evolves will influence audience’s experience of Hide and Seek in its future runs?
Loris: Yeah, I think probably. I hope that like there will be some like, legislation or something happening to sort of help mediate the negative effects of it. And so maybe like, maybe there’s a future where people look back on it like, “My God, isn’t it crazy that people would interact with each other in this way? And things were just completely unregulated?” So maybe there’s a future in which people look back and go, “Wow. Isn’t it wild that we let this happen to the kids?” That’s really speculative, but who knows?
Nico: I think even from the start of the play, where it was 2019, look where we were as humans in 2019 and how we are now in 2024. Yeah, it has changed so much. I think this is a driving force of this play. We see right now with like AI. So, I think in future times, whatever happens with, you know, the world and the profession, people can look back at [this play] and be like, wow, that’s someone’s emotions that can touch so many different people and it’s a real thing. And when was the last time we had something so real and so vibrant, so joyful and so sad and so hilarious?
What is it that drew you to working on this play?
Nico: Personally, I love new writing. I read this play, and I was taken aback because, there’s not a moment where you pause, or you’re bored, or you switch off. There are so many places that it takes you. The team helps so much. Obviously, I did the Vault Festival last time and when I had the offer to do it again, I snapped at it and said yes, completely. Because the team that we have here, they’re so wonderful. And Tobia, when he’s in rehearsals, he really expresses the characters to you. And if you do something a little different, he goes, “I never thought of Gio or Mirko as that. That’s a really interesting take.” And it’s, you know, it is an accepting place. But before Vault, having just read it, I thought it was a story that needed to be told. When you really just hear two people talking about their feelings, there’s no room for someone to tell you how you should feel. You’re just being open and beautiful with another person.
Loris: Yeah. Nice. I agree with all of that. This is the first time I’m doing it, so I didn’t do it at Vault. I mean, as soon as you read the script, you’re like, why wouldn’t you want to do a project like this? Like, the writing is just beautiful and like, so specific and really touching and, and you just see the characters instantly. And what, what an amazing challenge as an actor to, to be given the gift to try and bring these amazing characters to life. Like, you know, you can’t ask for a better project than that. And again, the team is so good.
Nico: It’s a beautiful challenge. Like you said, we don’t have, we can’t hide. You know, it’s, I don’t know how long this version will be, but there’s minimal props and there’s two people. You cannot hide. It blacks out, Gio’s still active, doing things, you know, and people will be looking at that and then Mirko enters with energy every scene. You cannot hide.
Is there anything about your characters that you’re hoping will prompt the audience members to do a little bit of introspection after watching the piece?
Loris: I mean if, if people were able to look at parts of themselves that they that feel unable to fully express around people and if they were able to just go, like, it’s okay, yeah, that’s fine. And there is no reason why anyone’s opinion of the way I want to be should stop me from doing that. That would be beautiful. Yeah, then mission accomplished.
Nico: You know, I think for myself, to choose niceness, too. When I read Mirko, it taught me a lot because there was a period in my life where I related so much to him. I was part of a large friendship group in high school, and you do anything to fit in. And I always chose niceness as a person. And I think Mirko does, but he knows he has to put a face on in public. When he is in a room alone, he’s a very different person. I would say to people when they’re looking to Mirko, if they relate a lot to him, just understand that, you know, there is nice bits to you. You may feel like you’re bad. You may feel like you’re doing this, but there’s a purpose and a reason for absolutely everything. So just find that niceness and that positivity that you find that you have. Deep down.
We’ve touched on this topic a bit, but theatre globally tends to have a hard time attracting younger audiences to shows. Do you think shows like Hide and Seek that speak specifically to issues young people are facing will succeed in changing the age demographic of the typical theatre goer?
Loris: I think from what I can remember in Italy, [schools would attend productions] of Hide and Seek.
Nico: Which is great. They have two, like, actual 15-year-olds playing the characters. And then all the teenagers ask them questions after the show. And obviously there’s a lot that happens in the play so there are professionals and therapists there to talk to them, to ask them, how do you feel around this topic and that topic?
Loris: So sick, and also, I guess that is a way of showing younger people how valuable theatre can be as a form of like, I don’t want to say therapy, but like, in a way, can be therapeutic. I think that you had some schools come in to the last run [at Vault Festival], or did you?
Nico: Yes, we did, and I think we have some coming this time.
Loris: Which is amazing. And so important and like so, so happy that that has been arranged. We have a great team.
You can buy tickets to Hide and Seek here – running at Park Theatre from the 12th to 30th March