THE BEE
IDO: And as I am removing the ring finger,
I linger with the knife.
I cannot tell if this woman
Standing in front of me, right then,
Was my own or Ogoro's Wife.
Who are you?
Who are you?
THE BEE, by Hideki Noda and Colin Teevan
What would you do if your wife and child were being held hostage? It seems that the only option for Mr Ido is to accept his terrible fate. Besieged by cameras and reporters, the world is demanding to know how he feels. But as his personal tragedy is played out on screen, Ido decides to take control. Refusing to play the victim he seeks out a bitter revenge.
A highly-charged, tragic satire, The Bee asks what happens when the victim becomes the aggressor, the weak become powerful and the watcher becomes the watched.
The Bee was developed over three years with Japanese writer/director Hideki Noda and the hugely revered, Olivier winning British actress, Kathryn Hunter. Legendary in Japan, Hideki Noda directed the first Opera in the country's New National Theatre and has garnered outstanding acclaim for his mould-breaking interpretations of Kabuki classics. His fascination with the similarities and disparities between Japanese and British culture has led him to work with key figures in British Theatre.
First produced at the Soho Theatre, London June 2006
Cast; Tony Bell, Kathryn Hunter, Hideki Noda and Glyn Pritchard
Director; Hideki Noda
Designer; Miriam Buether
Lighting Design; Rick Fisher
Sound Design; Paul Arditti
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'This adaptation of a story by Yasutaka Tsutsui revels in ingenious deployment of simple objects to create a world that is playful and sinister, beautiful and brutal.'
Financial Times****
'As self-destructive as a bee's sting... the evening swings from hyperactive satire to thought-provoking nightmare... Make a beeline for it.'
The Telegraph
'Classically streamlined... magnificently played.'
Evening Standard ****
'Lurid, fast-moving, preoccupied with sex and violence, this collaboration between the Japanese director and actor Hideki Noda and the British writer Colin Teevan resembles a Manga cartoon... This is vivid, imaginative work.'
The Times
'(The Bee) is extremely simple but lifted out of the ordinary by Kathryn Hunter's superb gender-bending performance as the ruthless Mr Ido, and by Hideki Noda's production in which the everyday and the bizarre, the real and the surreal become as mangled as a bowl of noodles.'
The Guardian
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 The Bee is published by Oberon Books. Click here to order a copy of the text.
Colin Teevan discussed the development of The Bee in an interview in Contemporary Theatre Review. To download this interview, click here.
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Credits | 
