Inside We Hide

Those familiar with The Blue Room Theatre will know that audience members (usually) need to walk completely across the stage to reach the seating area. As you enter for Inside We Hide, you need to be careful not only not to trip over potatoes on the floor, but to avoid treading on actors as well.

Ann-Marie Biagioni has created an intriguing thriller, where three people are being held prisoner in an unknown place, while someone of importance to them is being tortured on the outside. To add to the confusion, their captor appears to be a little girl.

A dark but at times funny play, it leaves as many questions as it answers and I heard one audience member stage whisper a plaintive "I don't understand this play" at about the halfway mark.

Brenn Hislop (Andy) and Verity Softly (Mary) give excellent performances as characters obsessed with blame of themselves and others, while Alicia Osyka gives an outstanding, understated performance as Louise.

Sam Knox and Penny Walker Keefe have designed a simple but highly effective set, particularly admirable in that it presumably requires bumping in and out for each performance, in a shared venue during FringeWorld.

While probably not to everyone's taste, Inside We Hide is a clever, well presented psychological thriller that leaves its audience thinking.

Kimberley Shaw