Hidden (Harrogate)

Hidden was first performed as far back as 2011 (in what appears to have been a slightly different form), but first came to widespread notice at the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe. It seems to me a perfect Fringe vehicle, an intelligently economical 65 minutes with the freshness, humanity and wit to sit well between the stand-ups and the German expressionist dramas.

On tour, as a stand-alone in theatres, it’s a bit insubstantial, but still highly enjoyable. Harrogate Theatre once again deserves great credit for its association with a small theatre company, in this case Black Toffee, so small and so new that googling its name only produces a recipe for bonfire toffee.

Hidden is in every way a two-hander. Laura Lindsay and Peter Carruthers, at the time recent graduates of Arden School of Theatre, wrote it together, they play all six parts and Lindsay is the founder of Black Toffee. The play is an imaginative take on modern society, but, rather than its originality, what impresses most is the assurance of the writing and structure in a first collaboration.

Six characters present a veneer of normality, but all possess dark – or at least unhappy – secrets, revealed for the most part in monologues, though the characters touch and overlap and share unsatisfactory relationships. Sex is at the heart of the quirks, problems and obsessions, though never in a fulfilled way: a business woman dreading a positive result of a pregnancy test, a diffident man in the grip of bizarre erotic dreams, a supermarket worker who is not looking for the opportunities her intelligence could bring her, but, with increasing desperation, for a man.

The mix of humour and societal unease that characterises the play is perhaps best conveyed in a glorious sequence with a Lord of the Rings-reading commuter whose unadmitted relationship with a young woman on the early morning train is only acceptable to him so long as it is played out within the conventions of commuterdom.

Lindsay and Carruthers switch characters skilfully, without caricature, and pace their monologues perfectly. Helen Parry‘s direction is unobtrusive, but at the start of the tour this is already a slick and assured production. Alexander Swarbrick‘s set is admirable in every way: the modern city skyline hints at the reasons for the dysfunctional society and the combination of props trolley and changing notice board navigates through the different settings with the minimum of fuss.

Hidden continues at Harrogate Theatre until 1 February.