THE HIDDEN ONES - WWII Immersive Theater at War with Itself yet Impactful

THE HIDDE ONES is an immersive theatrical experience that resonates with deafening power.  The play created & directed by Anthony Logan Cole embarks with a few audience members into a cramped hiding place for 2 families during the Holocaust.  The location for the play was only revealed 2 days prior to its performance by a cryptic email that evokes confidentiality and caution.  Patrons are queried before entering and stripped of their outer garments & bags by a large man who is brusque and distrustful.  The power of the play created & directed by Anthony Logan Cole lies in the trust the audience surrenders and the families' trust & reliance for one another while trying to remain undiscovered and alive.  The cast of the families in hiding consist of mother/father & daughter and a mother/father & son.  The boy's mother Monica Blaze Leavitt and the girl Rakel Aroyo were mesmerizing.  Before entering the set, you are ordered to wait & then led by hand behind hanging curtains, shushed and gently seated in varying spots just off the main area where the families gather to eat and fraternize while remaining mute. Braden Hooter's scenic design felt authentic & confining.  I was moved by the families tenderness with each other under these horrifying times & the vicariousness of their safety sequestered from the Nazis.  The requisite for remaining silent & still was terrifying.  I complied fully & willing with the actors positioning me & pantomiming instructions.  It was somewhat paradoxical that music was played throughout.  The score included popular songs in the 40s by Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby and the German born Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata."  Given all that was stripped & taken from the Jews during WWII, those still in hiding were left only to imagine & envision an outside world of beauty & humanity.  The repeated shrilling of a locomotive was a jarring reminder of the millions being carted off to the camps.  The choreography by Whitney Sprayberry was stirring, especially the slow motion toasts and Shabbat rituals.  I was only spoken to once by the boy's father.  He spoke of those hiding in sewers and the loss of his wife, baby and a brother who was a homosexual.  He thought he'd be spared since he only married a Jewess.  A short narrative tying in the families given for the participating audience may have better served to anchor the reality in which we were submerged.  The father's war story conflicted with his role in the cast and fought with a full immersion as a human being trying to survive these heinous times.  Yet, when the bashing of the doors finally arrived, the utter fear & selfless heroic acts left me with a visceral response of terror and persevering empathy.