ย โMiracles are just changesโ. This is the urgent take home message of Hidden/Current, a play, with its gaze on GBV, which was staged in Cape Town, last week (November 27-29, 2025) at Artscape in the Arena. Three stories unspool in different physical and cultural contexts, contained by layers which includes a spiritual realm of water. The water โ The Rusalka Water Realm is a liminal space, with water/supernatural spirits. They are spirits, ancestors, witnesses. The audience becomes part of that โ witnessing the narratives โ and mulling over the choices made by the protagonists in the various scenarios. What would you do in such a situation? How do we deal with denormalising what is considered โnormalโ in some cultures? [In Slavic mythology: ‘Rusalka’ denotes water nymph).
Director Robin Lynn Smith intertwines the narratives seamlessly together, shifting in time, space and locale, tethered by a water spirit in the Rusalka Water Realm who is a relentless witness, lurking, looking over the shoulders of the protagonists; a presence and prompt to make changes. I loved that. We must remember that we are not alone. Hidden/Current underscores that beautifully through the invocation of powers and energies, beyond our corporeal world.ย If you do not believe in spirits, ancestors, mysticisms, it may be about harnessing feminine energy to fight GBV and I think that we can all live with that.
Robin Lynn Smith is a Founding Partner and Artistic Directorย of the Freehold Theatre Lab from Seattle, the producer of the play. For this production, the Lab gathered a multinational cohort of writers, actors (ten), two musicians and a team of creatives. The three writers are Fatima Dikeย (from Cape Town), Naghmeh Saminiย (Tehran) and Elizabeth Heffronย (Seattle). The actors in this production are from Cape Town, Seattle, San Francisco and Vancouver. It is unusual to see a multinational theatre production on this scale, on stage, with a wide angle lens on GBV and inequality. Places of the three stories: Istanbul, a hair/salon/apartment; protagonists include a painter in exile from Tehran, a 14-year old bride to be; A trailer in Washington State Prison, with a prisoner who is on the cusp of release. Therein lies the intrigue of this story. Protagonists include a mother and her new husband who has foot issues (yikes). The third story is in Langa, South Africa, with a withering gaze on arranged marriage and the pressures of clan, elders, tradition. Protagonists include a young women who is seen as a transactional commodity, the man who is part of that transaction, her father and an old friend who is following age old dictates.
It is a lot to consider. Freehold got it together. The company communed in Cape Town, activating Freeholdโs core purpose โdeepening the transformational power of theatreโ. Consider that โ ten actors from around the world โ evoking stories which are hidden and current. The current in the title also alludes to water which forms a web like membrane, a womb, holding space for the stories. For more on the title, see interview with Robin Lyn Smith: โThere is such an undercurrent (in so many cultures, across class and ethnicity) of this oppression; and the violence perpetrated against women that is often unacknowledged- met with silence. And our surreal realm is a water world, with the fierce spirits of young women who met unjust and violent deaths, who are back to bring these stories to us. The violence and response is often hidden; the current is both the water and the fact that it is still going on โ now.โ https://thecaperobyn.co.za/theatre-interview-hidden-current-gathering-stories-a-vital-intersection-of-the-grassroots-and-global/
Things do not occur in a vacuum. This play drives home contexts and those who are complicit in the dissemination of GBV. It is not just down to men as we see in the story set in a prison trailer in the USA. The abused may become abusers in perpetuating abuse. It is not uncomfortable and messy territory to navigate. Generational trauma lingers and manifests. Circling back to how the play ends, โMiracles are just changesโ, the call out is to make choices which lead to change.
The season was supposed to be from November 27-29, 2025 but opening night was cancelled, as one of the actors was hospitalised. A plan was made with stand-in actress, reading from the script. It was not an ideal situation, but the team rose to the challenge.
I am refraining from writing a โreviewโ as I am cognizant of challenges and pressures with the curve ball of an ill actor and some technical issues (such as sound) which popped in and it became in part a staged-reading. I will say that I think that the text could do with a substantial trim in terms of length. I loved the physical movement, dance, music and sound. I wanted more dance/movement and less text. I loved the presence of the onstage musicians โ as witnesses โ setting the pace – the heartbeat and heightening the images of water โ the current. I enjoyed the leitmotif of water through the set โ a ship with portals. I loved the image of hair in two of the stories (hair salon and prison), particularly the quirky image of the protagonist, Kayla starting a business when she leaves prison. Her jewellery idea is to put pubic hair embedded in an amber type substance to make pendants. Feminine energy is very much a current running through this play and that pings with veils – being veiled, covered, hidden.
Hidden/Current is an issue play. It exists as part of a body of work; not just as a play. Yes, it is unfortunate that there were roadblocks in presenting the โfinishedโ play and the truncating of the run, to only three performances. There were supposed to be four performances. However, the play was only one aspect of the Hidden/Current project. In tandem with the play, Fatima Dike led a discussion on GBV at Guga S’Thebe Cultural Centre in Langa on November 23. Excerpts from the play were performed and the cast and team facilitated a Q&A. A question and answer session followed each performance at Artscape. Vital conversations were kindled by audiences at the play, at the GBV session led by Dike and with the cast and creatives as the play took shape on stage.
In transformational theatre, the journey and process is as important as the โfinished productโ ie the play. A big round of applause to Freehold for igniting theatre of transformation โ through the testimony of writers from different parts of the world. I hope that the project will be taken further.
โณ Related coverage of Hidden/Current on TheCapeRobyn: https://thecaperobyn.co.za/theatre-interview-hidden-current-gathering-stories-a-vital-intersection-of-the-grassroots-and-global/
โณ Featured image: Fatima Dike (writer) and Robin Lynn Smith (director) in rehearsal discussion, Hidden/Current, Cape Town, November 2025. Pic: Jeffrey Abrahams. Pic supplied.
