Hidden: A Play about Self Worth, Mental Health and Self Harm

By Nina Lemon

Recommended Year Group: 8+ Show Length: 80 mins 

Sophia feels stifled by boarding school life, has a poor body image and struggles to control her mood. Matt is consumed with anxiety about his impending exams. Tash is haunted by memories of a traumatic childhood.  In the long summer after GCSEs these three very different teenagers strike up an unlikely friendship at a music festival. They’ve been to different schools, had different friendship groups and have led very different lives. As they share their stories it becomes clear that they have one thing in common – they have used self-harm as way to cope with their feelings. Hidden tells the story of the recovery of these three very different teenagers as they struggle with their mental health and self-harming behaviour.

 

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) there has been a threefold increase in the number of young people who self-harm in the UK. With up to one in five 15-year-olds saying they self-harm and the NHS reporting a rise of 30% in the number of children (between 10 and 14) being treated by the NHS as a result of self-harm, this timely play offers an insight into this unhealthy behaviour as well as hope that recovery is not only possible but desirable.

 

Designed to debunk some of the unhelpful myths surrounding self-harm and enable teenagers to get the help that they need for themselves and their peers to find healthier ways to manage their emotions, this play was developed by youth arts charity Peer Productions in consultation with clinical experts as a direct response to requests from young people and the teachers and youth workers who support them.

Teachers’ Pack

Peer Productions has worked with Dr Pooky Knightsmith, Mental Health and Wellbeing lead for the PSHE association to develop a Teachers' Pack designed to work alongside the play. This contains materials and resources for supporting lessons as well as suggestions and recommendations for working with this challenging topic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Salamander Street Ltd.
• Release date: Sep 24, 2020
• ISBN: 9781913630577

Book preview

PROLOGUE

The cast bursts onto the stage. Music plays. We are at a festival. Everyone is happy, laughing and dancing. From the crowd TASH, SOPHIA and MATT talk to the audience.

TASH: Summer.

MATT: Exams are over.

SOPHIA: Finally.

TASH: And results are months away.

SOPHIA: Do I know you?

MATT: Not yet.

TASH: I just thought you seemed…?

SOPHIA: Familiar?

MATT: (Back to the audience.) We don’t go to the same school.

SOPHIA: We don’t know the same people.

TASH: We’ve never met before.

SOPHIA: But today we’re going to meet.

MATT: We’ll pass each other in the crowd.

TASH: And we’ll smile.

MATT: Because we like the same music.

TASH: Because the sun is shining.

SOPHIA: Because we’re at a festival and there’s no reason not to smile.

MATT: Time to relax.

SOPHIA: Time to breathe out for the first time in a long time.

TASH: Time for the long summer after GCSEs.

MATT: And I’m excited cause we managed to get tickets.

SOPHIA: And I’m excited cause my parents said yes.

TASH: And I’m excited ’cause it’s three whole days of music

SOPHIA: And dancing.

MATT: Just me and my mates in a field somewhere covered in mud.

TASH: And it’s like all my worries are melting into the mud

MATT: And it’s like everything that happened is being carried away on the wind.

SOPHIA: And I’m not that person…

TASH: That girl

MATT: That boy

SOPHIA: That attention seeking girl I’m just

TASH: Tash

SOPHIA: Sophia

MATT: Matt

SOPHIA: Three completely different people

MATT: Three completely different