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Take me to the world: Hide and Seek @parktheatre

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In a small town where everyone knows everyone, if you don't like it, you might feel that the only logical thing to do is to disappear. Especially if you think it will help your social media rankings. The loneliness and isolation of youth meet influencers in the wild in Tobia Rossi's Hide and Seek. And while events take a darker turn, the humour and the intimacy make this piece about youth on the edge (of trending) fascinating and enjoyable. It's currently playing at Park Theatre .  Mirko (Nico Cetrulo) is exploring a cave with his camera when he stumbles on Gio (Louis Scarpa). Gio has been missing for a while, and the town has been looking for him. But Gio is more interested in how much he is trending on TikTok. He also had a crush on Mirko. Soon, they establish a friendship and a bond. In the cave, they explore feelings they would not dare share outside. However, things turn darker when Gio is confident enough to leave the cave, while Mirko doesn't want his double life

Theatre: Whistle Down the Wind

Monday night I saw Whistle Down the Wind. It was my first Andrew Lloyd-Webber show I have seen since I saw an amateur version of Jesus Christ Superstar in the 1990s. It is based on a movie that was set in rural England where a group of children find an escaped convict and who are convinced he is Jesus Christ so I figured there was a theme running here. Ok it isn't art, but its something the home counties love (judging by the audience demographic around me).

For anyone who has seen the Hayley Mills film you probably have a better chance of understanding the plot, although you may be left wondering why they moved the story to 1950s America. There is one thing that the British do pretty lousy and that is American accents so I thought that was a pity. Had they left the story in Britain one could have imagined a pantomime-type reaction from the audience when the cops are looking for the escaped convict along the lines of "He's in the barn!" Alas the show takes itself all too seriously to have any sense of fun, and it was hard to have much sympathy for any of the characters (always a danger for a musical).

Still there are some nice numbers involving hoards of children singing, or was that a backing track? I guess if it sounds too good to be true (i.e. children in time to complex music and in key) it surely has to be. It is also hard to tell what music was real with five keyboards / "orchestra makers" in the pit, but hey that's the trend in the West End nowadays… The title song is in danger of entering the standard repertoire for Christmas time and other cheesy occasions but I guess we all need some cheese every now and then.

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