Elena Eisenstadt - Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Jul 25, 2024
Regardless, it’s best you come prepared because “Hide,” the new play produced by Vigilance Theater Group (https://www.vigilancetheater.com/) completely immerses its audience in its supernatural world.
The Mercers are throwing their annual summer gathering in their old house in Highland Park — and you’re invited.
How do you know the Mercers? Maybe you’re an old neighbor, a coworker, a friend or a former lover.
Regardless, it’s best you come prepared because “Hide,” the new play produced by Vigilance Theater Group (https://www.vigilancetheater.com/) completely immerses its
audience in its supernatural world.
In “Hide,” actors don't break the fourth wall. There is no stage or curtain. The action is set in a real house with scenes set in the living room, kitchen, basement den and bedrooms, respectively.
Written by Sean Collier and directed by Brooke Echnat, the immersive play opens at 8 p.m. Friday and continues Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Aug. 11. Tickets, $60, are available at www.vigilancetheater.com (https://events.humanitix.com/hide).
The characters are an eclectic group. Kimberly and Brian Mercer (Tamara Siegert and John Feightner), a married couple on the brink of divorce, have two adult daughters – the neurotic Marigold (Sarah Dugan) and feisty Tabatha (Maddie Kocur).
Tabatha is in a polyamorous relationship with Ann Chambers (Marisa Postava) and Leah Smith (Bradleigh Bell), whose father, Desmond (Tyler Ray Kendrick), is newly married to Marigold.
When the 15 audience members enter the house for the performance, the actors are already in character, offering crudité and several brands of seltzer while welcoming you into their awkward family dynamics.
All of a sudden, breaking news appears on the living room TV: Someone has been found dead in Highland Park, another victim of the recent “wolf murders.” The culprit is unknown, but some suspect that a werewolf, or something not completely human, is the killer.
The party turns into a gossip frenzy: Have you heard the news? So what do you think? Do you think it was a werewolf? In Highland Park, of all places?
Audience members and actors discuss the situation as guests would at any party. The elephant (or werewolf) in the room can’t be avoided, as much as Brian and Kimberly Mercer attempt to quell the crowd.
As the small talk continues around the living room, characters pull audience members into other rooms for one-on-one chats. There, they might reveal family secrets and unspoken grudges, hinting to the audience that the wolf murderer is closer than previously suspected.
When the party is over, the audience becomes invisible, witnessing the rest of the action unfold as wallflowers around the house. But they still have a crucial decision to make, guided by a spirit (Allie Lampman).
With “Hide,” Collier hopes to blend “supernatural circumstances” into a grounded narrative about parents inching toward divorce and kids who feel disconnected from their families, he said.
However, these supernatural circumstances don’t take the form of glowing green eyes, long nails or a furry tail, as they often do in computer-generated imagery of werewolves.
“In our research, we found that the earliest myths and folklore around werewolves were not about the transformation. They were about people who became this wolf-like creature in spirit and physicality,” Collier said.
The theater company, co-founded by Collier, opted to run with this version of a werewolf, creating suspense through lighting, sound and action.
“Hide” is the final show in Vigilance’s season, following their production of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” and Collier’s original play, “Campfire Stories.”
“I think the uniting thing in these stories has been finding what lurks just outside of our comfort zone,” he said.
The 90-minute show, which is supported by Fractured Atlas (https://fracturedatlas.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001007453-What-Is-Fiscal-Sponsorship#:~:text=Our%20fiscal%20sponsorship%20program%20provides,(c)(3)%20status.) and The Opportunity Fund, runs July 26-Aug. 11 at the house Highland Park (audience members learn the location when they buy tickets).
In November, Vigilance will put on its next show, Sarah Kane’s “4:48 Psychosis” directed by Harper York in Lawrenceville.